From mobile paddy-processing machine to various alternatives for plastics and value-added products from almost all fruits and vegetables, the VAIGA (Value Addition for Income Generation in Agriculture) expo is celebrating a wide range of innovations in the farm sector.
A mobile paddy-processing machine developed by Sreejesh Ananganangadi of Ottappalam can steam, dry, and process paddy. This can be used in any season. As it is a mobile machine, it can be taken to the houses or farms of farmers. It can process around 600 kg paddy a day. Sreenesh is in an effort to make a solar-powered option for the machine.
Theme pavilion
Visitors to the VAIGA, exhibition and International workshop organised by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare with a theme ‘Sustainable growth through Agri-preneurship’, have been greeted with a snake boat filled with fruits, vegetables, and cash crops of the State. VAIGA theme pavilion, set up by Farm Information Bureau, also has a variety of value-added products.
Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) and its stations have set up a pavilion with 34 stalls in the exhibition. The themed display stalls are arranged crop/productwise and stationwise. Additionally, there are stalls for KAU products, where samples of unique value-added products are kept for display.
Five stalls exclusively for KAU RAFTAAR Agri Business Incubation (KAU- RABI) Centre function in the pavilion envisaging agribusiness incubation by utilising the incubation facilities and expertise already available with the Kerala Agricultural University.
Apart from these, exhibition and sales of agricultural products and value-added products from coconut, banana, millets, vegetables, flowers, spices, cocoa, medicinal plants, agricultural equipment, and machineries are also set up.
There is a separate stall for farmer-scientists interaction where the doubts of farmers are cleared by the scientists from the university. Stalls of KAU Intellectual Property Rights Cell (IPR Cell) and KAU publications are the other attractions.
As the State has declared its war against plastics, VAIGA has introduced various organic options for plastics. The stall set up by National Institute For Interdisciplinary Science and Technology is providing many alternatives for plastics, including products from wheat, coir, wood dust, and sugar cane.
They will provide technical support for those who want to start such units.
The Tamil Nadu Horticulture and Plantation Deportment has made a model of Red Fort with various spices. A mobile tomato soup unit by Indian Institute of Processing Technology, Thanjavur, supplies tomato soup for the visitors.
Ignorance about value added products leads to wastage of many agri products, they noted.
The mobile unit introduced by the Institute can process the excess produces at the farm itself. Farm produces including Tomato, green chilli, guava, papaya, plantain, and mango can be processed with the unit.
A garden of miniature plants set up by Biotechnology And Model Floriculture Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, has been attracting many people. Around 19 seminars on various subjects have been organised as par of the VAIGA.
