Consumers are changing very fast, their demands have increased and complexity of business is growing. In such times right use of sustainable technology, automation and digitization has become the need of an hour.
India stands second globally in agriculture production. Hence, most of the world is showing interest in getting raw ingredients or processed foods from India. To boost up the food industry, better integration with farmer along with innovative technology is to be needed.
This was the outcome of various presentation made by the speakers at one day conference on “Ideas Innovation and Industry Enabling Smart Food Factories” on 3rd march 2018 in Pune, organized by Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA) along with National Agriculture and Food Analysis and Research Institute (NAFARI). Anand Chordiya, Chairman – Food Processing committee, MCCIA, Vinay Oswal, NAFARI and Anant Sardeshmukh, Director General, MCCIA, were present.
Gajendra Bhujbal, Advisor, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) inaugurated the conference. In his inaugural address he emphasised the need for processing large amount of agro products to avoid wastage that was in the range of Rs 1 lakh crore. He explained various schemes of the MoFPI to promote food processing and to enhance the infrastructure and facilities for food processing. The government was planning to set up Agro Processing Financial Institution to support agro processing units, he added.
Guest of Honor at the inauguration, Ryoji Noda, Consulate General of Japan, explained the importance of new technology for preserving and processing food. He also assured the participants that all assistance will be provided by Japan to India for technology upgradation & improvement and investment.
Dr. Sudhirkumar Goel, former Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary – Agriculture and Marketing, explained in detail the agriculture and food industry connect. He also elaborated on how farmers can be benefitted from the agri products processing. He emphasized the need for reaching directly to the farmers by the processing units for their supplies.
Sadashiv Survase, Joint Director, Director of Industries, Govt. of Maharashtra, described Maharashtra government’s policies for food industries. He also elaborated on the details of the special policy for women entrepreneurs, which was launched by the Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis last year.
S Kartikeyan, Principal Counsellor, CII Godrej Green building Council, explained in general the concept of green buildings, which could prove useful for the food processing factories. These buildings are energy efficient and eco-friendly, he added.
Food factories of near future will be much different than today. Factory efficiency would also be improved by the use of IT systems for traceability, communication between processing system and storing data. This value creation in food processing through digital transformation was elaborated by Kumar Tambat, Solutions, Director, SAP Labs India. Advait Kulkarni, Director, Vasundhara Geo Technologies, explained how the satellite remote sensing technology can be used in in the agriculture field.
Prof. Narendra Shah, IITB-Monash Academy, explained the importance of smart supply chain management in home delivery model for food. In this context he showed a demo of a mobile app Lokacart, developed by his team for farmers. Dr. Venkatesh Mesa, Asso Prof, Depat of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, deliberated on the integrated technology approach to optimize India’s Agri food potential in 21st century.
The nutrition value of food will have to be retained with utmost efficiency and minimal cost as well as making it environment friendly. To add value to the food product, one of the best ways is to fortify the foods. The importance of fortification was explained by Rajendra Kshirsagar, Production Manager, Industrial metal powders India ltd.
3D printing is going to be the important aspect of food industry in near future. Prof. Bhesh Bhandari, Dept of Food Processing Technology, University of Queensland, Australia, explained the ease with which any of the desired food can be printed using 3D printing technology.
Prashant Patil, Founder, Mera Kisan, demonstrated another app Mera Kisan developed for the procurement of fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers. Lisa Dewulf, Business Development Manager, Mahindra-Greenyard presented a case study on Indo Belgium collaborative business. She also pointed out various business opportunities in food industries ranging from raw material to processed food. Similarly Mr. Giampaolo Dattoli from EGPlus, Italy showcased the opportunities of Indo Italy joint Food business.