Mahant said the Centre was laying special focus on food processing industry, and CIPHET could play a very important role in this regard. Appreciating a survey conducted by the institute in figuring out post-harvest losses, he said similar studies should also be carried out in future at a large scale. He encouraged scientists to develop technologies and machinery which could help small farmers and enterprise in rural areas.

Dr P R Bhatnagar, officiating director of CIPHET, told the minister about the recent innovations and technologies developed at the institute. “Institute is conducting a number of training programmes for development of entrepreneurship in the area of food processing,” he added.