Five Day Online Training Programme On Promotion Of Technologies And Extension Strategies For Value Addition And Post Harvest Technologies For Officers Of Department Of Horticulture, South Indian States
Adding value to India's horticultural produce is the need of the hour as it not only enhance profit margins and agri exports of the country but it will also be a right step in the direction of enhancing farmers' income. India's horticultural exports are at a bare minimum, despite being a leading producer of fruits and vegetables. Fruit and vegetable export contribute merely 2% of the total agricultural exports of India. This is starkly low in comparison to Brazil (30%), USA (70%) and Malaysia (82%). Hence Keeping in view of importance of value addition and processing in Horticultural produce, EEI, Hyderabad has organised a 5 day virtual training programme to improve the knowledge of the extension functionaries in the area of “Promotion of Technologies and Extension strategies for Value Addition and Post harvest Technologies” for 21 officers of Kerala, Karnataka and Odisha of Department of Horticulture from 8th to 12th November 2021. The programme helped the trainees to understand very important aspects like Food processing industry- initiatives and promotion, Dry flower making, value and supply chains, role of APEDA in helping horticultural farmers, harnessing solar energy for making value added products from fruits and vegetables, Interviews and experience sharing with Women enterpreneurs Ms K. Himabindu (TIMIOS foods) and Ms M. Sowmya (MILLENOVA FOODS) on their entrepreneurial journeys, TAN 90 precooling solutions aiding the farmers in their first mile and last mile transports and Creative use of Mobile Horticulture Advisory Services in reaching the unreached. Pedagogy and Innovative instructional techniques such as online real time Interviews, virtual tours, breakout sessions and Panel discussions were implemented in this programme. Speaking on the valedictory Dr. M. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Director, EEI said that Value addition to horticultural products has numerous advantages for all stakeholders. Besides enhancing the shelf life of the product & reducing food wastage, value addition leads to higher monetary return for the food & beverage industry. This will also mean higher incomes for farmers as exports and profits in the sector increase. He requested the participants to implement all the techniques learnt in the training among the farmers to double their incomes. The programme was coordinated by Dr. R. Vasantha, Professor, EEI.
