A one day Academia-Industry interface meet was organized by ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bengaluru on 12 February 2020. The meet was attended by 89 delegates belonging to Food Processing Industry, Supply Chain Management companies, Catering, Financial Services, FPOs, Government Departments, Academic Institutions, Start-Up entrepreneurs, incubators and Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers in addition to the ICAR-IIHR staff and students. The meet was attended by Executives from eight Supply Chain Management companies which included prominent players like Big Basket, Reliance Fresh, Waycool Foods and Products Pvt Ltd, Amazon; 12 Food Processing Companies including Coca Cola India, Amul, Nissin Foods, while the catering service industry was represented by Swiggy. Farmer Producer Organizations and SHGs were represented by Kisan Saathi, UBUNTU and Parivarthan, while eight Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers also participated in the meet. The event was also attended by officers from KAPPEC and DIC, Government of Karnataka. Scientists from ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal and Coimbatore, UAS, GKVK, UAS, Raichur also participated in the event.
The programme started with an Inaugural session with welcome address by the Convenor, Dr. H.S. Oberoi, Head, Division of PHT and AE, ICAR-IIHR Bengaluru wherein he apprised the gathering about the main theme of organizing such an event, followed by address by Mr. Manoj Rajan, Special Secretary, Food Processing, Government of Karnataka, who apprised the gathering about the new initiatives being taken by the Government of Karnataka in the area of development of food processing clusters in the state. He also highlighted the role of a strong network between the Research Institutes and the Government departments in development of rural food processing hubs. Dr. M.R. Dinesh, Director, ICAR-IIHR, in his presidential address stressed on conducting Industry driven research and urged the Food Processing Industry to come forward and create more avenues for collaboration with the Academic Institutes. Dr. P.S. Tiwari, Incharge Director, ICAR-CIAE, Bhopal appreciated the idea of having these kind of interaction meetings for solving the ground level problems being faced by the farmers and the Industry. Dr. Prabhakra and Mr. Shivaprasad, farmer representatives and members of Institute Management Committee (IMC) and Research Advisory Council (RAC) of ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru highlighted the problems of farmers in not getting the remunerative price for their produce. Dr. G. Senthilkumaran, Organizing Secretary proposed a vote of thanks. During the inaugural session, a MoU was signed between ICAR-IIHR and Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation Ltd (KAPPEC) and three publications were also released.
The technical session on "Fostering Academia-Industry interface collaborations" was chaired by Mr. Manoj Rajan and co-chaired by Dr. P.S. Tiwari. The session included presentations by Dr HS Oberoi on varieties, machinery and technologies from ICAR-IIHR followed by presentations on Machinery and technologies from ICAR-CIAE, Bhopla by DR PS Tiwari; An overview of incubation at ICAR-IIHR by Dr. CK Narayana; Modalities of technology commercialization through ITMU by Dr.G.S. Pillai; Help required by Fruit Processing Industry from Beverage Industry Point of View by Mr. Asim Parekh, Coca Cola India; Connecting Farm to Forks-Technological interventions by Mr. Navin Kumar from Big Basket; AMAP-An Innovative Technique to enhance shelf life of fresh produce by Dr. Raziq Khan from UFlex Ltd; Key challenges in handling of fresh fruits and vegetables in catering industry by Mr. ND Thammaiah, Swiggy; Market linked cultivation-Outgrow by Mr. Ramanatha Shenoy, Waycool Foods and Products Ltd; Role of AMMA in Mechanization by Dr. Surendra Singh and Innovations in grading of fruits and vegetables through image processing by Mr. Jagadeesh from Zentron Labs.
The second technical session on "Creating opportunities for start-ups in Food processing and Mechanization" was chaied by Dr.M.R. Dinesh and co-chaired by Dr. Veeren Gowda, Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering, UAS, Raichur. The session included presentations and talk by Mr Udit Mangal from PLUSS, Gurgaon on Role of thermal energy storage in farm level solar dryer and cold rooms followed by Opportunities available with C-CAMP for agri based start-ups by Mr. Shubham Singh; Opportunities for start-ups in Food Processing through E-commerce gateway by Mr. Sachin Achintalwar, Cloudtail; Strengthening FPOs through capacity building and market linkage by Mr. Prem Rathod; Making markets work for the small holders by Mr. Sridhar from Sammunati Financial Services and Vision group investment incentives in Mechanization in Karnataka by Mr. Adwaith, Ernst and Young. The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr. C.K. Narayana, Principal Scientist, ICAR-IIHR and CEO, BESST-HORT, ICAR-IIHR.
The major points which emerged out of both the sessions were:
Industry representatives were impressed with the varieties, machinery, protocols and technologies developed by ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru and wanted to have a long term association with the Institute.
Technologies for value added products from Jackfruit seed powder, Probioticated Mango beverage and Pomegranate juice were appreciated by the representatives from the Industry and they desired to have wide range of such products to be developed without the addition of sugars, chemicals or preservatives.
The event provided an opportunity for interactions among the diverse stakeholders and some of the issues pointed above could be addressed on the spot through the networking of different stakeholders and the Research Institutes.
Industry also wanted to work in the PPP mode to develop solutions to the problems/ issues of societal interest.
Industry and Institutes may collaborate in areas like development and validation of bio-based suitable packaging material for fresh and fresh-cut fruits and vegetables and determination of correct maturity stage for fruits.
