Minister for Horticulture and Food Processing, Govt of Punjab visits ICAR- CIPHET

Ludhiana, August 9, 2022: Fauja Singh Sarari, Minister for Horticulture and Food Processing, Govt. of Punjab visited ICAR- Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET) today. K A P Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab and Rajnish Tuli, MD, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Limited were also present during the occasion.

Dr Nachiket Kotwaliwale, Director, ICAR-CIPHET welcomed and elaborated on the scope as well as the work conducted by ICAR and ICAR-CIPHET. He highlighted that the technologies developed by the institute which includes machineries, equipment, process protocols and value-added products can boost the income of farmers through processing and reducing post-harvest losses. He also informed about activities of ICAR-CIPHET with special reference to the land of Punjab.

The Minister applauded the efforts of ICAR-CIPHET and wished that the institute may work as a team to make our country’s name proud in the area of processing also. The Minister also visited the Agro Processing Centre, Agri Business Incubation Center and interacted with few entrepreneurs promoted by the institute. He was also appraised about the activities of  Post-harvest Machinery and Equipment Testing Center, Plasticulture park and other laboratory facilities available in the institute.

Various institute developed technologies like vegan-dairy analogues from groundnut, extrusion processing, makhana processing pilot plant, live fish carrier system, maize cob dryer, wadi making machine and cryogenic spice grinding system were demonstrated to the visitors. 

K A P Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary, advised ICAR-CIPHET to collaborate with Punjab Agricultural University, GADVASU, Punjab State Government Departments and bankers, to convert farmers into entrepreneurs.

Dr. DN Yadav and team from Transfer of Technology Division coordinated all the activities and visit.