Bulk Storage, Fumigation and Drying of Grains at Farmers Level

In view of the increased production of food grain, it is mandatory to conserve the same also. To overcome the huge losses due to lack of availability of post harvest measures, the need of the hour is to strengthen the post-harvest measures (PHM). a meeting was arranged in New Delhi.It was 5th in the series.

Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, inaugurated 5th Meeting of Indian Grain Storage Working Group today at NASC Complex, New Delhi. The theme of the meeting was "Bulk Storage, Fumigation and Drying of Grains at Farmers Level".  

In his address, he said with the increasing production of food grain, the responsibilities of conservation are also increases. He said due to lack of availability of post-harvest measures, country has to bear huge loss every year. He further added, now we are self sufficient in various food grains so we should concentrate on market-centric approach instead of production centric approach and need to give more emphasis on post harvest processing and handling specially in storage on farmers end.

Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) said, in the absence of the facilities of preserving agricultural produce both the farmer and the government have to suffer the loss. In such a situation, the farmers should be in touch with various agricultural institutes and know the current research findings regarding conservation of food grains.

Dr. D. S. Jayas,  Vice–President (Research & International) University of Manitoba, Canada urged that there should be facility of measuring humidity in the food grains at Panchayat level, where farmers can get their grain sample checked.

Earlier, Dr. K. Alagusundaram, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering), in his welcome address briefed about the objectives of the meeting.

Senior officials of ICAR, farmers from different states, representatives from Food Corporation of India and Central Warehousing Corporations were participated in this meeting.

Technical presentations were given by grain storage experts from Academia and industry.  A hands-on training session on small scale bulk fumigation of food grains was also conducted for farmers.