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RICE FORTIFICATION WITH IRON TO ADDRESS INCIDENCES OF ANAEMIA
The Department of Biotechnology ( DBT ) through R & D support to Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ), Kharagpur has developed the requisite technology on the fortification with Iron for addressing the incidence of anaemia . This involves production of Iron fortified rice premix through extrusion process using broken rice kernels . This iron fortified rice kernel premix matches with the normal rice kernel in shape and size , and when mixed with normal rice in the ratio of 1:100 provides 50 percent of recommended daily allowance ( RDA ) of Iron . This technology can also be used to fortify rice with other micro nutrients , as well . The incremental cost of fortification has been estimated by IIT-Kharagpur to be upto 80 paise per kg of rice .
As per the Minister of State for Science and Technology , Mr Y S Chowdhary , the number of steps taken by Government to take forward the rice fortification model to all parts of the country to deal with nutritional deficiency among the women and children .
A Pilot Scale Unit with a capacity of 100 kg / hr / shift has been commissioned at IIT-Kharagpur . The technology is ready for demonstration and transfer to prospective entrepreneurs . The same can be commercialized . However , for introduction in the Govt programmes such as Mid-day Meal Scheme and ICDS to address micro nutrient deficiencies in children , DBT would be willing to set up pilot scale production unit in States who would be interested . Accordingly ,
Accordingly , an MoU could be executed between DBT and the respective State Government Departments . This technology was also deliberated in the “ National Summit on Fortification of Food ” which was an Inter Ministerial meeting convened by FSSAI on 16th and 17th October , 2016 , which was attended by State and Central Government officials , Industry representatives and academia . Further , DBT ’ s proposal on the above issue has also been shortlisted in the Inter State Council Secretariat for the Eastern Zonal States – Bihar , Jharkhand , Odisha , West Bengal under their social outreach programme .
INDIA REMEMBERS ITS GREATEST EVER MILKMAN
On the occasion of the National Milk Day on November 26 , 2016 , the celebrations were held in New Delhi to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Verghese Kurien , the father of white revolution .
Speaking on the ocassion , the Union
Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister , Mr Radha Mohan Singh mentioned that Dr Kurien ’ s contribution in organizing the dairy farmers in the form of cooperatives is well known . He stated that India is world leader in milk production since last 15 year and credit of making India as world leader in milk production goes to small producers .
Mr Singh further said that lot of work is to be done in the sector in order to make available sufficient nutrition and milk to every child in the country . Agriculture Minister informed that India with 190.90 million cattle ( as per 19th Livestock Census 2012 ) has 13 percent of the world cattle population . Out of this , 151 million are indigenous , which is 80 percent of the total cattle population . Country with 108.7 million buffaloes has 57 percent of the world buffalo population . Country is number one in bovine population having 18 percent of the world population and contributing 20 percent of the total milk produced in the world .
RS 118 CRORE SPENT ON FARM MECHANIZATION IN LAST TWO YEARS
Recently while releasing coffee table book , “ Farm Mechanization for Make in India ’, the Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister , Mr Radha Mohan Singh stated that it is essential to use maximum and best technology available resources in fast changing world . He pointed towards the growing world economic competition so that domestic requirement of food grains can be met and export may be promoted .
Agriculture Minister said that farm mechanization has become an important part of crop production , processing and transport but it is facing double challenges in the whole world . The first challenge is to increase the supply of food for growing population and the second is the protection of environment . He said that the challenge of farm mechanization still exists in India . Most of our land holding is a small , therefore , commercial use is not proving beneficial but government ensuring the availability of farm machine- rota vator , blow sprayer , cotton cultivator , cutter and shredder through the establishment of custom hiring centre for those farmers who cannot buy costly farm machines . Four regional farm machinery training and testing institutes have been established in the country which cater to the needs of standard and quality farm machinery and equipments .
Mr Singh informed that farm mechanization sub-mission has been started from 2014-15 for the purpose of promoting farm mechanization in the country by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare . The aim of the sub-mission is to promote farm mechanization for small and marginal farmers and to promote farm mechanization where there is less availability of farm machines . The Minister further said that the Modi government released Rs 340 crore for this sector in last two years i . e . 2014- 16 whereas the previous government released only Rs 62 crore between 2012-14 . Mr Singh said that Central Government has released Rs 118 crore for mechanization purpose .
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BioVoiceNews | December 2016 - January 2017