National Agri-food Biotech Inst projects to boost agri prodn

If the research undertaken by the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Punjab proceeds in the right direction, one can see seedless custard apple or litchi seeds, kinnow peel, seed or leftover and rice bran being converted into high-value molecules. These researches are likely to change the face of agriculture and horticulture sector in a few years.

At present the institute, one of its kind, aims at catalysing the transformation of agri-food sector in India, It is working on four projects — improvement of wheat for nutrition and quality, development of seedless fruits, elimination of specific problem related to kinnows like bitterness, making high-value molecules from its peel, seed and its leftovers and lastly conversion of agri-by products like rice straw, husk, bran into high-value molecules.

 

Speaking to Business Standard, Executive Director, NABI, Dr Rakesh Tuli, said, “At the moment, we are working on four projects. Out of the four projects, we will be able to designate our flagship research in the next six months. The researches are likely to take 2 to 5 years to take practical shape. All the four researches are aimed at deriving maxim benefit from a particular crop and will give a fillip to the agriculture sector in India.”

Commenting upon researches being undertaken, he said, “We are working on improvement of wheat for nutrition and quality. There are several methods to improve nutrition and quality. One is by making the contents like iron, vitamin A, zinc available to the body, second is by fortification, breeding and third by nutrition enrichment through bio-technology methods. We are also working on developing seedless fruit like custard apple and litchi. This will help food processors and size of fruit will be bigger as seeds will be eliminated. Also, we are doing research on using agri-by product to convert into high-value molecules like in the cases of rice husk, rice straw and rice

bran. Besides, we are working on kinnow, so its bitterness can be removed that will help in juice extraction and peel, seeds, left over will be converted into high-value molecules.”

“We will act as an institute for knowledge generation and translational science leading to value-added products based on agri-food biotech innovations. Also, we will develop synergy among knowledge providers and investors in agri-food sector to carry innovations to the marketplace,” he added.

It is worth noting that the NABI, an ambitious project of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, government of India, is likely to be ready in the next three years. The autonomous institute along with a bio-processing unit, would become India’s first Institute in the field of agri-biotechnology, for which the Centre has earmarked Rs 400 crore to be injected in the next five years.

Further, the institute along with bio-processing unit and biotech park would be spread over 130 acres at Knowledge City at Mohali (Punjab). Of the total allocated 130 acres for the cluster, NABI’s permanent campus would be built on 35 acres while the bio-processing unit and biotech park would come up on 15 acres and 80 acres, respectively.

The interim facility in Mohali (Punjab) is partially operational and would be fully functional in the next six months. The facility would prepare value-added products based on agriculture and undertake new researches related to agriculture.