IMPHAL, Oct 16 NNN: A three-day training for people on Supply Chain Management of Horticultural crops commences today at the Manipur Press Club with the training being imparted to about 50 officers drawn from all district headquarters including three Sub-divisions of Jiribam, Kangpokpi and Moreh.
It was jointly organised by the Central Institute of Horticulture, Department of Agriculture (DAC) under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Medziphema, Nagaland and Choudhary Charan Singh (CCS) National Institute of Agricultural Marketing and Manipur Horticulture and Soil Conservation and sponsored by the the Institute of Agriculture Marketing, Jaipur.
Kuber Singh, Director of Horticulture and Soil Conservation of Manipur was the Chief Guest, Prabin Das, Marketing Specialist,. Central Institute of Horticulture (CIH) was the Guest of Honour and Dr Ramesh Mittal, Deputy Director, National Institute of Marketing (Jaipur) was the President of the function.
Kuber Singh lamented the dearth of marketing and transport facilities as the main impediment in finding proper markets for Manipur fruits like lemon, orange, pineapple, etc before they are spoiled unnecessarily. In order to avoid such situation, the department is organising this training programme to inculcate and impart necessary skills and requirements to the officers concerned with Supply Chain Management of horticultural fruits so that the officers can further train various progressive farmers on management of such products and situation, he said. Later, about 10 progressive farmers and 5 officers who joined such programme and training in the next phase will be drawn up from among themselves and sent to National Institute of Agriculture Marketing (NIAM),. Jaipur, for further upgradation of their skills, he added.
Although Manipur is abounded with specific types of food items it has not been able to produce such food of international standard, therefore, the state Government will focus in this area and will propose the Central Government to set up a food technology institute in the state, stated Commerce and Industries minister Govindas Konthoujam at a function marking the World Food Day held at the Food Processing hall, Porompat here on Tuesday.
As part of the World Food Day 2012 observaance organised by Association of Food Scientists and Technologists (India) Manipur Chapter a 3-day seminar was inaugurated by Govindas Konthoujam. He was attending the function as chief guest.
Admitting that food is required by all, the minister said in Manipur, the people have the habit of wasting food on large scale during religious occasions and other festive seasons and highlighted the importance of giving awareness on this to the people.
He said when Manipur was a kingdom food was available abundantly but now the state has completely depended on other states of India for food and such has been caused owing to lack of work culture in the state.
Emphasising on the need of maintaining work culture, Govindas said foods made from bamboo soot are eaten in 5-star hotels in many countries today. However, the state which is bountiful of bamboos has not been able to produce such food of international standard that can be attracted by other countries. Therefore, the state Government will definitely propose the Central Government to set up a food technology institute in Manipur, he added.
Dr A Tombi, ex- vice president, Manipur University, V Taulthang, Additional Director, Commerce and Industries and Diraj Yumnam, Executive Director, Commerce and Industries graced as president and chief guest of the function.
A technical session on the topic: post harvest storage of meat and fish was also organized wherein resource person Dr Ranbir Thiyam, Assistant Professor of Animal Science Central Agricultural University (CAU) spoke on post harvest storage of meat. Resource person Ksh Bimola, Lecturer, Home Science, Ideal Girls’ College delivered speech on nutritive value of processed and unprocessed meat while resource person M Tonjao spoke on the topic post harvest storage and processing of fish.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/food-supply-chain-management/
