Annual Workshop on Natural Resins and Gums held in the North East India
10th Annual Workshop on All India Network Project on “Harvesting, Processing and Value Addition of Natural Resins and Gums” was held at ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya on 30-31 Oct 2018. Many value added products such as Yoghurt, Ice cream, Chocolate flavoured milk, anti-diabetic laddu which were developed with addition of many natural gums and resins such as Gugul, Guar, Karaya etc as stabilizers were presented in the workshop. The project generated many technologies for which three patent applications have been filed. Few technologies such as Guar based ice cream and Gugul laddu shown high commercialization potential. Assistant Director General (Engineering), Dr K.K. Singh who chaired the meeting, emphasized on the need to diversify the research and come up with new cutting edge and futuristic technologies. Dr K.K Sharma, Director, Indian Institute of Natural Resins and Gums, Ranchi discussed about the possibility and scope of doubling the farmers income by 2022 and suggested the scientists to use Gums and resins as a component because gum and resin yielding plants are usually present in the stressed environments where production of traditional field crops is very low. Possibility of development of sensor based technologies, development of biodegradable plastics, diversifying use of different types gums and resins for improving shelf life of agricultural commodities were discussed in the workshop. Dr S.K. Tyagi, Project Coordinator of AICRP on PHET also shared his expertise and experiences to work in new areas where collaboration across different AICRPs can be initiated to develop super specialty high value products. Another attraction of the workshop was development of Tamarind Seed Processing technology which has substantially improved the quality of Tamarind powder to improve its acceptability in the market. This would help the farmers to fetch better price and enhance their income.
