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IICPT offers training to create confident entrepreneurs
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Monday, 14 March, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Irum Khan
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 Only training can help India produce confident entrepreneurs in food processing, says Dr K Alagusundaram, director, Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology. The IICPT is an R & D institute under the aegis of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India. The Institute focuses on training local entrepreneurs and aiding them with right technology and research solutions in food processing. A tele-conversation with Dr K Alagusundaram, the man in-charge of the Institute.
How has been the journey of the Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT) over the years?
Well, the Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology started as a small research laboratory in the Modern Rice Mill complex of Thanjavur Co-operative Marketing Federation (TCMF) at Tiruvarur in Tamil Nadu way back in 1967. It started under the dedicated leadership of the late Dr V Subrahmanyan, an eminent scientist and founder director, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore.
It was basically launched to develop a solution for preserving high-moisture paddy because the paddy harvest season in southern India coincided with the tail end of the South West monsoon.
The lab developed good technological solutions like mixing the paddy husk with common salt in the ratio of 5% (as common salt absorbed water from the paddy).
Later in 1972, the Institute was upgraded as a national laboratory with the name Paddy Processing Research Centre (PPRC).
At the time of upgradation the mandates of the Institute were also changed and the scientists in the Institute focused their research in identifying technologies for post-harvest procession and preservation of paddy. The Institute was moved to its current location at Thanjavur in 1984.
Considering the vital importance of strengthening the R & D efforts in the post-harvest processing, preservation and value addition of raw agricultural produce, the ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) strengthened and upgraded the PPRC as a National Institute in February 2008 and was called the Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT).
How did the involvement of the government help the Institute?
The government was extremely encouraging and backed us at each step. It gave us a fund of Rs 90 crore for the upgradation of the Institute.
The fund was utilised for the construction of infrastructure facility including administrative block, 5 R& D blocks. In addition, we now have around 28 new scientists working for the Institute. The research laboratory was upgraded to meet the national standards for laboratories. Around Rs 20 crore was spent on the purchase of lab instruments. And now, we can proudly say that we have one of the best research facilities in the country.
What are the activities carried out at the IICPT?
The IICPT has a food testing laboratory which is accredited by the NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories). Here, we analyse food samples for the industry, research institutions, students and others. In addition, the institute also has food microbiology, food product development and food engineering laboratories. In April 2009, a training-cum- processing incubation facility was launched by Ashok Sinha, secretary, MoFPI, to encourage small entrepreneurs and students in the field.
The Institute disseminates training to the entrepreneurs, youth from the rural areas, self-help groups, for women and farmers.
What was the idea behind creating the incubation centre? Which are the processing activities carried out there?
When we created the incubation centre we had an understanding of India's dismal performance in food processing. It was also a universally accepted fact that to meet the future global food requirements India had to act as the food factory for the world.
For these, we needed to produce numerous food processing industries at the village and taluka levels, giving special attention to the small cottage industries.
By processing and value addition, the producer and trader could enhance their income levels and the food availability for domestic consumption and for export would increase.
In India, the annual consumption of 'value-added' foods alone was greater than Rs 2,25,000 crore per year which was larger than the entire manufacturing sector.
Ironically, India lost 25-50% of the fruits and vegetables, 10-30% of the grains and oil seeds in the post-harvest chain. These losses translated to a whopping monetary loss worth Rs 60,000 crore per year. We understood that preserving and value adding these wastages would help enhance the income levels of the farmers, traders and the country as a whole.
Thus, we created the incubation centre to encourage new entrepreneurs to participate in the business of food processing and value addition, and to be technically trained by providing hands-on experiences.
Currently, all processing related activities like packaging, canning, bottling, sashay packaging, retort-pouch sterilising and making ready-to-eat products are carried out at the centre.
Can you give us an example of how the incubation centre actually works?
Well, to give you an example, I will narrate to you a hypothetical situation. Consider
an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to invest in the food processing business but is unsure about the success of the product he intends to make and is hesitant to take risk with his money.
He then comes to the IICPT for help. Here, we would guide him to make the product and test it in the market. If the product is well received he can go ahead with the investment.
Thus we help people in their new ventures, for which we train people twice a week in our campus.
In the last one year we have trained around 20,000 people in our incubation centre. Training helps them become confident entrepreneurs.
Also, we offer them technology solutions. A lot of people hire our machinery for making products. The equipment which are otherwise available at the cost of Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,50,00 can be hired from here.
We have high technology machinery which can be adopted by small cottage industries.
On the academic front what is the contribution of the Institute?
In the 2009 academic year, the Institute started offering courses in BTech, MTech and PhD in food processing engineering. We have 40 students for the BTech course, 10 in the MTech and 5 in the PhD programme.
We are proud of the fact that all our 10 students from the M Tech course come from different states of India, thus giving a national flavour to the Institute.
We are also progressing towards building collaborations with international forums. We have created a passage for communication with these forums.
For example, we have signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) with the University of Nebraska, Colorado State University, Illinois Institute of Technology in the US and McGill University, University of Manitoba and University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
There is a lot of transfer of knowledge, technology, research work and also students exchange programme with these unive
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