The Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), and NERAMAC (North Eastern Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd), had recently organised a workshop on Packaging of Processed Fruits for Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs’ at Dimapur, Nagaland.

The background of the workshop was that though the Indian economy was based on agriculture, and grew tremendously in terms of production of food grains, fruits, vegetables and cash crop it witnessed great loss - 40% of India’s fresh fruits and vegetables were lost due to improper harvesting, lack of storage facility, mishandling, transit loss, improper and unscientific packaging.

According to N C Saha, director, IIP, has taken the bold initiative to organise five workshops of one day duration at different places in India. The IIP has already done series of workshops viz. Guwahati, Delhi, Agartala, Tirupati, Goa, Siliguri, Vizag, Ranchi, Muzaffarpur, Aizawl, Imphal, Shillong, Chittor, Tejpur, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Itanagar, Cochin and now at Dimapur to cover this sector of industries located in different parts of the country. As these industries need special attention for their upgrade in terms of technology and technical know- how so that these industries would be able to sustain in this competitive world.

H K Khulu, agricultural production commissioner & principal secretary (agriculture), Government of Nagaland, Kohima, was the chief guest, at the workshop. The guest of honour was Dr Akali Sema, director, Central Institute of Horticulture (CIH), Dimapur, Nagaland. He highlighted about the different problems faced by fruit processors especially in Dimapur.

Sashi Pongener, chairman, Nagaland Rural Bank (NRB), Kohima, Nagaland; Inamul Hussain Saikia, zonal manager, Nagaland, NERAMAC; and Sashank Gahtraj, president, Yimsean Livelihood Development Society, Dimapur; also addressed the sessions.

Source: http://fnbnews.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=30899&sectionid=1