Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, February 28
The second workshop on “Food Supply Chains: Improvements and Innovation through Collaboration” concluded at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today. The workshop was organised by the Centre for Global Business, Monash University, Australia, in collaboration with PAU, Ludhiana; Newton Bhabha Fund and Global Value Chain Research Network, University of Lincoln, UK. It was facilitated by the Punjab Chapter of the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers. Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, Vice-Chancellor, PAU, said the university would provide infrastructure for the Food-SCAN (Food Supply Chain Advancement Network). He asked the Department of Processing and Food Engineering, PAU, to create a website of Food-SCAN within a month.
Dr Glen Croy from Monash University, Australia, chaired the fourth session on “Best practice from overseas and India.” During the session, Dr Sandeep Kapur, Comptroller, PAU, and Dr Ramandeep Singh, Professor of Business Management, spoke on agribusiness and rural agribusiness, respectively. Dr Wayne Martindale, University of Lincoln, UK, delivered a talk on “Global scope – Food supply chain optimisation and engagement – Food system development initiatives from India, Kenya and the UK.”
During the fifth session on “Food-SCAN proposals and activities,” Prof Amrik Sohal, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia, said Food-SCAN would work as an independent body involving the participation of educational institutions, farmers and the government. Deliberating on the priority areas, he constituted a five-member committee to form the structure of Food-SCAN body. Dr Mahesh Kumar, Head, Department of Processing and Food Engineering, disclosed that a stall of Food-SCAN would be put up at the next Kisan Mela of PAU. He also presented a brief report of all the technical sessions.
Delegates from Australia and UK, farmers and suppliers, aggregators, sorters, food processors and packers, equipment suppliers, retailers, warehousing and logistics providers participated in the workshop.
