A workshop on strengthening collaboration in research on pulses with Canadian institutions was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology here on Wednesday.
Pitam Chandra, former Director, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, inaugurated the workshop, organised in association with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and National Research Council of Canada. It would focus on deriving action points for conducting collaborative research with Canada to bridge technological gaps in Indian food industry and improve prosperity of farmers by creating a strong backward link. Key areas of collaboration between two countries would be development of value-added products from pulses; engineering dynamic gastrointestinal system; developing technology for production of vegetarian meat with pulses; establishment of ‘Pulse bio-park’ in Tamil Nadu; arriving at alternative dairy products; and bringing about alternative protein supplementation replacing the pulses, according IIFPT Director C. Anandharamakrishnan said. Currently, the country faces acute shortage of pulses; there was a decline of 50 % in the per-capita availability of pulses in three decades. The situation has led to import of around five million tonnes of pulses annually.
Further, due to lack of appropriate technologies at field levels, post-harvest losses in pulses shoots up to 10 %. So, there was a strong need to increase domestic output, adopt novel technologies for value addition, minimise waste and develop alternative food products for protein supplementation, he added.
