After initial hiccups, the agro-processing industry has finally begun to grow in both organised and unorganised sectors, though in distinctly different manners. The organised sector, dominated by big business houses and multinational companies, mostly uses imported machinery and technology to process agricultural products of a specified quality, the unorganised sector, comprising small and tiny enterprises, is using indigenous equipment and technology to process native farm produce.
However, considering the unorganised sector accounts for over 70 per cent of processed produce by volume and caters to local tastes, it merits special attention in terms of research and development (R&D) support. Imported technology is of little value to small enterprises because most of them use as raw materials locally available farm products that are generally consumed fresh rather than being processed, and operate on a smaller scale.
Fortunately, the country now has research centres that can provide the necessary R&D backup to this sector. One such centre is the Ludhiana-based Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET). Many tools and technologies developed by this institute have become popular with farmers and small agro-processing entrepreneurs.
“Consumers are now willing to buy convenient-to-use and ready-to-eat products. Innovative approaches are needed to apply modern technology for value addition of local farm products,” says CIPHET Director R T Patil. Standardised and better quality products churned out using new techniques are being received well in the domestic and export markets. CIPHET also helps commercialise agro-processing technologies by licensing prospective entrepreneurs to use them and providing consultancy needed to set up the processing units. Many processed food products developed by this institute and manufactured by small-scale enterprises are hugely popular. Soya milk and groundnut milk produced by CIPHET have found many takers because of their health benefits. Besides, consumers are turning to such milk owing to growing fears about the purity of milk from dairies and milk products available in the market (even doctors have begun to recommend the alternatives). Products like ginger, garlic and onion powder and green chilli powder are already being produced commercially under licence from CIPHET.
Among the recent introductions, vegetable-blended meat products have proved a great success. The blending makes the meat products even more nutritious and palatable. Vegetable doping up to 30 to 50 per cent has been found feasible without impairing the taste of the meat products. Many poultry-based units are known to have begun producing vegetable-blended poultry products. Even rabbit meat, treasured as lean meat, is being converted into a value-added product for health-conscious consumers. The National Meat and Poultry Processing Board, set up by the government to promote the value addition of all kinds of meats, has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with CIPHET for technical consultancy on all aspects of meat processing. The board will also involve CIPHET in imparting specialised training to entrepreneurs and helping in capacity building programmes. The board has already set up a model food testing laboratory in New Delhi.
This apart, simple tools like a banana comb cutter, maize cob sheller and groundnut decorticator can reduce the cost of these operations and slash losses. For instance, the banana comb cutter has been found to reduce the wastage of freshly harvested bananas by 8 to 10 per cent.
Small technical inventions, such as preliminary cleaning, cooling, grading and short- to medium-term storage, can cut post-harvest losses and help farmers get higher returns. CIPHET is recommending that farmers build low-cost cold rooms, based on the principle of evaporative cooling, to store fruit and vegetables without affecting their quality. These rooms consist of double-walled structures made of specially created porous bricks, with fine sand in between the two walls, connected with a water source to keep the sand wet. Such walls allow water to evaporate and cool the chamber. They also help maintain high humidity required to retain product freshness. Storing produce in such rooms can help farmers defer the sale of their produce to an opportune time to get better prices.
