Event 12
Capacity Building on Small Millets based Value Added Food Products at Post Harvest Technology Centre, TNAU
Capacity Building on Small Millets based Value Added Food Products was organized at Post Harvest Technology Centre, TNAU (Tamil Nadu Agricultural University) in Coimbatore by DHAN Foundation in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University on 5th and 6th December, 2017 as part of Scaling up Small Millet Post-harvest and Nutritious Food Products Project with the funding support of IDRC and Global Affairs Canada under CIFSRF. In the two days training, 30 participants mainly women food entrepreneurs from Tamil Nadu and NGO staff (Nirman) from Chhattisgarh participated. As part of extending DHAN Foundation works to other states of India in promoting small millets, the participants from Chhattisgarh have been invited to this programme.
Dr.Varatharajan, Professor in Post Harvest Technology Centre, TNAU welcomed all the participants. In his welcome address, he explained the need for acquiring the new product skills and improving the already acquired skills. He shared about the experience gained from the previous training programmes and elaborated the various interventions taken by TNAU in collaboration with DHAN Foundation in promoting small millets across the country.
A team from Post Harvest Technology Centre of TNAU consisting of Dr.Kanjana, Dr.Vennila, Mrs.Subbulakshmi, Ms.Suganya, and Ms.Gogula Seetha acted as resource persons for two day practical demonstration on the theme of the training. The team provided practical demonstration in preparation of bakery products, instant food products, pasta items and traditional food products to the participants. During the practical demonstration, the participants raised several clarifications and the resource persons responded very well to the clarifications. Dr. D. Malathi, Ph.D., Professor (Food Science Nutrition), TNAU, Coimbatore interacted with the participants and distributed the certificates to the participants after receiving the feed-back about the training from the participants. The training evoked good response from the participants. It is evident that the capacity of each food entrepreneur has been improved in standardizing their food products and developing new products as a result of the training. The participants felt that such training would be useful for us in stabilizing and scaling up of their products. Earlier, Mr.
