Food Technology

 Overview

Food technology sub-unit was established in the 1990s at Katumani research station with a motive of promoting the available developed food crop technologies. This was necessary since little of the varieties developed were being adopted by the end users when in their raw state. The materials include cassava, sweet potatoes, sorghum, cowpeas, pigeon peas, dolichos finger millets, green grams and pearl millets.

In order to value add the improved food crop technologies developed at the AMRI institute to make them more acceptable and nutritious various equipment would be required for processing and maximize adoption by the target end-users

Rationale and justification

Food processing and utilization are vital activities in reducing postharvest losses to our produced food stocks and also enhancing value in terms of quality and acceptability by the end-users. In connection with this, there is need therefore to develop, evaluate and promote suitable processing technologies to catalyze utilization of improved food crop technologies for enhanced industrialization. Subsequently, this would spur uptake of the developed food technology packages among wide range of consumers within and beyond our borders.

Objectives

Its overall objective was to disseminate food crops technology package developed at katumani over years to spur uptake of the improved crop material varieties. 

Specific objectives

  1. Spur uptake of improved food crops technology package
  2.  Enhance nutrition status among the people in the communities mandated with Katumani research
  3.  Enhance entrepreneurial awareness and consequently catalyze adoption of   the traditional crops value-added products technology packages developed

Constraints

  1.  Low uptake of improved food crops seed technologies packages by target end-users due to negative attitude towards consumption of traditional crops
  2. Belief that the value-added products are more expensive to prepare because of extra inputs makes many target end-users unwilling to adopt the technology packages.   
  3. There are no enterprising entrepreneurs seeking to establish cottage firms using the developed value-added traditional food crop products.

 

    

Strategic focus

  •  Fabrication of appropriate equipment /tools for processing improved food crop materials to enhance their acceptability
  •  Improving the available processing and utilization technology packages to catalyze their adoption by diverse stakeholders
  • Formulation of diverse value-added food products targeting various categories of end-users to enhance their adoption
  • Cultivate the entrepreneurial attitude to embrace the developed food technology packages to establish processing firms as commercial enterprises