APC, Nagaland, Y Kikheto Sema with IIP, MESME and other state officials at the capacity training programme in Dimapur on August 4. (Morung Photo)
IIP conducts training on packaging fresh and processed food for entrepreneurs
Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 4
A one-day training programme targeting the food packaging sector was conducted by the Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) in Dimapur on August 4. According to the IIP NE Regional Head & Deputy Director, Bidhan Das, the capacity building training was for Food Processing Organisations and micro entrepreneurs based in Nagaland. Around 140 participants signed up for the training.
The training was preceded by an inaugural programme, which had in attendance Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) and Commissioner & Secretary, Nagaland, Y Kikheto Sema; Taliwati Longchar, Joint Director & Head of Operations, MESME-Development Institute, Dimapur, and state government officials, including the Directors of Agriculture and Horticulture Departments.
APC Kikheto, in his address at the inaugural programme, noted the requirement for an IIP institute in Nagaland. “We deserve to have one zonal institute so that training could be imparted to empower the people,” he remarked, while he appealed the Government of India to consider the need. According to him, the institute can be accommodated at the existing Agri Expo in 4th Mile.
Terming packaging as a very crucial segment of the food distribution network, he said that it assumes all the more significance given India’s standing as the second largest food producer in the world today. As a state aspiring to be a reliable food producer, he said that learning and familiarising with the food packaging process will only serve the purpose.
“Packaging is a science and an art. It has to appeal to the customer. In our context, this is a state where we get the hottest chilly in the world, but how to package and market it? The package itself should go across the world and tell the world that ‘We produce the hottest chilly, juiciest cucumber and sweetest pineapple in the world’.”
In line with Atmanirbhar Bharat, he said, “We need to give importance to our farm sector instead of getting it from Myanmar or china. Be Naga, buy Naga. Be Indian, buy Indian.”
For a state “untouched by the green revolution,” he noted that it is to the advantage of farmers that they can produce organic food. Marketing food products demands increasing shelf life and this where packaging knowhow comes into play, he said.
