Shillong, Mar 23: The Incubation Centre, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), MSME Incubator and Department of Agribusiness Management and Food Technology, Tura Campus, Meghalaya, along with ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram , organised one-day food festival on a theme “Converging the goodness of millets with healthy sweet potato” in its campus on Thursday.
This programme was organised under the Rainbow Diet Campaign project of ICAR-CTCRI as a part of On International Year of Millets campaign to encourage the students to develop innovative recipes by integrating millets and bio-fortified sweet potato.
The food festival was inaugurated by Prof. Sujata Gurudev, Pro-Vice Chancellor of NEHU, Tura Campus in the presence of Dr. P. Sethuraman Sivakumar, Principal Scientist of ICAR-CTCRI, Prof. G. Singaiah, Dr. Gino A. Sangma, Head, Department of Agri-Business Management and Food Technology, and Dr. R. Sasikumar, Nodal Officer, Incubation Centre (MSME Incubator), NEHU Tura Campus.
During the inauguration, Prof. Sujata Gurudev said that integrating healthy foods like purple-fleshed sweet potato and millets is the key to address nutritional security in Meghalaya. She advocated development of recipes with high market value will catalyse business creation and growth.
Dr. P. Sethuraman Sivakumar, during his address, explained that the orange-fleshed sweet potato variety ‘Bhu Sona’ is rich in Vitamin A and its regular consumption will eradicate Vitamin A deficiency while anthocyanin-rich purple fleshed sweet potato variety ‘Bhu Krishna’ has cancer prevention properties. Dr Sasikumar showcased and elaborated on the recipes and explained their culinary and nutritional qualities.
During the food festival, 20 recipes were prepared and served to the participants. Few attractions include pakkodas, paratta, kheer, baked chips, and halwa prepared from purple sweet potato and millets. The food festival was attended by 50 stakeholders including govt officials, private companies, NEHU faculties, and students.
The festival is part of the ongoing “Indradhanush Aahaar Abhiyaan” programme of ICAR-CTCRI aimed to eradicate malnutrition among tribal people through biofortified crops in the North Eastern region. Under this programme, Incubation Centre (MSME Incubator), at NEHU, Tura campus is implementing “Svasth Khao Svasth Raho” programme for eradicating malnutrition in Meghalaya through development of innovative and locally-tuned products from biofortified sweet potato. It is expected to reduce the stunting among children from current level of 47% to a significant proportion in two years. Since the biofortified sweet potato products such as vacuum-fried chips and noodles have high export potential, it will also boost economic growth in Meghalaya.
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