Any industry oriented research and development effort is supposed to be linked to the needs of that industry and the value of the R & D is directly related to its impact on user industry in terms of either profitability or improved quality. World over R & D institutions, especially those funded with public money come under increasing criticism because of the perceived irrelevance of their work to the needs of the industry as well as the society at large. This is all the more true in India where billions of rupees flow from the exchequer into a few R & D organizations every year with very little benefit to any one except the staff working there. An ideal industrial research set up must have adequate built-in mechanism for accountability and its working must be monitored by responsible persons with experience and knowledge of technology and industry, not by theoreticians and academicians with ivory tower "syndrome". Rutgers University in USA, though an academic set up, has been in the forefront helping food industry through many innovative and industry-relevant projects.
"New Jersey's legacy as the Garden State was celebrated last week along with the second anniversary of one of the most recent innovations designed to retain that legacy. Food entrepreneurs from around the state, including Princeton's own Twin Hens, producers of gourmet pot pies, gathered at the Food Innovation Center at the Rutgers Agricultural Experiment Station in Bridgeton to mark the two-year anniversary of an incubation facility for New Jersey food businesses. Twin Hens, created nearly 10 years ago by Princeton Township residents Kathy Herring and Linda Twining, is one of more than 1,000 businesses to have benefited from the extensive facilities available at the Food Innovation Center.Herring said Twin Hens was among the first businesses recruited to take advantage of the nonprofit incubation facility and the expertise of the staff who help New Jersey food businesses to grow."The staff they have there is amazing," she said. "They set up an assembly line that is super-efficient."Twin Hens' 40-ounce, family-size chicken pot pies were being made in Maine prior to the move to Bridgeton, she said. Returning to New Jersey allowed them to reduce their carbon footprint, purchase more local organic vegetables to put in their pies and provide work for local residents on the production line".
This is what is needed in a country like India where most of the food industry is concentrated in the informal sector with very little access to technical and technological resources and if these micro enterprises are able to make reasonably decent products, it is in spite of these public sector white elephants. Credit must go to the high entrepreneurial talent ingrained in them. If the existing high profile technological institutions, spending billions of rupees from the government, are not able to serve this sector, what is their use? Big private players with deep pockets will invariably see through their technological needs but the fruits of their efforts will be exclusive to them, with no horizontal transfer of the knowledge to others. Incubation centers like the one set up at the Rutgers are required in India through out the country with easy access and at low cost staffed by experienced professionals. Probably to start with GOI must consider setting up one Food Industry Incubation Center in each state, equipped well with state of the art machinery and other facilities, exclusively for use by small scale entrepreneurs, venturing into food processing.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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