CIAECIAECIAEVolume 23 No. 2

Modernizing agriculture through engineering interventions

April-June 2014

NEWSNEWSNEWSwww.ciae.nic.inwww.ciae.nic.inwww.ciae.nic.in

DIGEST

The efforts for formulating XII Plan programme began in real earnest during 2011. Several new ideas came up and were debated. The concept of secondary agriculture was proposed with special funds from Planning Commission. The issue was not only to minimize post-harvest losses, but also to establish a huge post-harvest processing and value addition industry including that in production catchments to generate more wealth with additional benefit of climate resilience. While there was wide spread support for the concept and its deliverables, finally it did not find favour.

National Agricultural Entrepreneurship Project was perceived as a successor of NAIP and a base document was prepared. In the meanwhile, agricultural education was found to be needing a revamp for sustainable Indian agriculture. Thus, it is National Agricultural Education Project (NAEP), which is being pursued as the successor of NAIP.

Prompted by the Council, CIAE from the very beginning decided to have two flagship programmes, one on precision farming and the other on bioenergy because we collectively believe that Indian agriculture needs these two engineering inputs (besides others) for profitability, respectability, and growth. The two Consortia Research Platforms are required to accelerate the growth in farm mechanization, precision farming and bioenergy research in India. These CRPs are perceived as the instruments for taking new partners on board and creating/ strengthening relevant infrastructure for bringing about the acceleration. We also customized our research portfolio to be distinct from any other institution in the country.

XI Plan period witnessed the emergence of a strong Technology Transfer Division with the convergence of ongoing programmes and the addition of new programmes. The efforts have been rewarding both in terms of attracting more resources and creating greater visibility. The Technology Transfer Division is poised for much higher growth during the XII Plan period. Needless to say that pull created by TTD would get manifested in more and better output from research divisions.

Finally in the meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) on June 9, 2014, held at ICAR Hq., under the Chairmanship of Secretary, DARE & Director-General, ICAR, the XII Plan proposal of CIAE Bhopal including the four AICRPs on Farm Implements and Machinery (FIM), Energy in Agriculture & Agro Processing Industries, Utilization of Animal Energy (UAE) and Ergonomics and Safety in Agriculture (ESA) was approved. The allocation is over three times that of the XI Plan outlay. The highlight of the proposal is the addition of Consortia Research Platforms (CRP) – one on Farm Mechanization and Precision Farming (Rs. 80 crore) and the other on Energy in Agriculture (Rs. 60 crore) to the infrastructure of CIAE. The The CRPs envisage the establishment of a state of the art laboratory on Precision Farming and an Advanced Centre on Bioenergy

with a view to intensify bioenergy research in India.

The CRP leaders have tremendous responsibility in getting started with sound implementation plan soon and maintaining cohesiveness in the chosen groups. Each member of the group, in turn, needs to be empowered and made to feel important as far as the deliverables are concerned.

CIAE has the opportunity to not only strengthen the existing infrastructure at Bhopal and Coimbatore for multiplication of research prototypes but also to create capacities at Patna and Guwahati. This strengthening and expansion would provide much needed fillip to our efforts for inclusive mechanization. The advanced centre for bio-energy research must lead to break-through so as to utilize the surplus biomass generated in agriculture efficiently to meet the agricultural needs.

The funds available to CIAE (excluding AICRPs) for the XII Plan are in excess of Rs. 100 crore with just 30 months to translate the programmes into physical reality. While such an allocation is essential considering the increasing role of farm mechanization, bioenergy and other engineering inputs into agriculture, it is a challenge to utilize the resources efficiently.

Rotavator assisted bed maker-cum-seeder...... 2

Training/ technology transfer activities.................................4-5

Licensing of CIAE developed technologies............................ 6

Publications.............................. 7

Krishi parivartan yatra..............8

BPD unit felicitated..................9

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

CIAE News 2

Rotavator Assisted Bed Maker-cum-Seeder

As a part of continuing efforts in developing packages of equipment for permanent bed cultivation system under NICRA programme, a prototype of rotavator assisted bed maker-cum-seeder has been developed. Commercially available models of sliding type bed shaper are not suited for bed forming in vertisols since the sliding action exposes big clods and forms an undulated bed. A combination of rotavator, seeder and a rolling dumbbell type bed shaper has been developed to perform flat-bed forming and bed seeding in one operation. The metering mechanism of seeder is driven by ground wheel attached to rolling bed shaper. Pegs were provided on bed shaper to avoid skid and give uniform power to metering mechanism.

Specifications

Equipment dimensions (LxWxH) 1760x2600x1160 mm No of furrow openers 5 (can be increased up to 11) Type of furrow openers Shovel type Type of seed and fertilizer metering mechanism Sliding type Fluted roller Weight of the machine 550 kg Bed dimensions (Top width x bed height) 1100 x 200 mm Number of ridge furrow makers 2 Distance between ridge furrow makers 1510 mm

Animal drawn three row garlic planter A three row animal drawn garlic planter suitable for Malvi and local breeds of Madhya Pradesh was developed. The planter uses cup type metering mechanism for sowing and fluted roller for fertilizer application, while the furrow opener is shoe type. Field capacity was found to be 0.08 ha/h and labour requirement 13 man-h/ha. Operational cost was estimated to be Rs. 725/ha.

Mechanical processing of moringa oleifera leaves

Moringa leaf stripperThe present system of stripping Moringa lea-ves is by hand. An attempt has been made to develop me-chanical stripper for Moringa leaves. The developed stripper has four wooden rollers (600 mm length) fitted with 4 mm thickness nylon

brushes, moun-ted on a frame, and powered by 1 hp single phase motor. In large scale trials the efficiency of the stripper was found to be 95% and the capacity about 50 kg/h at the optimum operating roller speed of 400 rpm.

Drying of moringa leavesMechanically stripped fresh moringa leaves were washed with sodium hypochlorite solution. Large scale drying trials were carried out in a polyhouse dryer, installed at collaborating industry. It took 11 hours for drying 300 kg fresh moringa leaves from an initial moisture content of 75 to 5 per cent (w.b).

Evaluation of open roof green house for tomato cultivationA greenhouse developed earlier with automatic opening of roof and side vents has been evaluated for raising tomato crop (variety: Himsonha). For comparison tomato of same variety was cultivated in open field also. Different crop growth and climatological parameters were monitored inside and outside the polyhouse for comparison. The micro-climatic information collected indicated that the temperatures in the open top green house is 4 to 6°C lower than the ambient temperatures due to operation of foggers as well as flushing out of hot air through

3 April-June 2014

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

side and top openings. The relative humidity is higher as compared to ambient conditions, possibly due to operation of foggers as well as moisture released during transpiration. The average crop yield obtained inside the polyhouse is 3.8 kg/ plant whereas outside it is 1.15 kg/ plant. The pest and disease attack inside the structure is less as compared to open field cultivation.

Evaluation of the cabinet dryer for drying tomato A cabinet dryer (15 kg/ batch) with gravel bed heat storage system developed earlier has been evaluated for drying tomato. Tomatoes are cut in to round pieces (5-6 mm thick)

2and uniformly loaded in the drying trays @10 kg/m . They are dried from initial moisture content of 92% (w.b.) to 6.5% (w.b.). The drying temperature in the drying box and solar

2intensity varied between 40-63°C, 400-1175 W/m (8 AM to 6 PM), respectively. The ambient temperature and relative humidity varied between 37-44°C and 25-40%, respectively. Increased temperature of gravel from 37°C to 53°C is found to enhance the operating time by 4 h after sunset. Drying efficiency of the dryer system is estimated as 36%. The drying time has reduced to 3 days in the solar dryer with gravel bed heat storage as compared to 4 days in the solar dryer without heat storage.

Okara and millet supplemented muffins Wet okara (filtrate) is a byproduct from the soymilk pro-duction process. It contains about 75% moisture (wet basis). Muffins were prepared using dried okara powder as well as wet okara with fermented and non-fermented batter to use it as a good and low cost source of dietary fiber. Experiments were conducted for preparation of okara and millet based muffins using four levels of substitution of refined wheat flour with millet in the range of 70-100 % at an interval of 10%. On the basis of physical, baking and organoleptic characteristics muffins with refined wheat flour and millet flour in the ratio of 0.55:0.45 added with 30% (bakers') okara powder, 10% skim milk powder and other ingredients like egg, baking powder in appropriate proportion were judged as most acceptable.

Soy fortified functional foods for target groupSoy fortified func-tional extruded pro-ducts were developed using rice, corn, wheat, soybean (5-30 per cent), fruits and vegetables (mango, papaya, guava, car-rot, spinach) and dairy ingredients. The protein, fat, carbo-hydrate and energy were found to be 16-19, 8-15, 61-70 per cent and 414-451 kcal per 100 g, respec-tively. The storage study inferred that all the samples were suitable for consumption even after six

months in a packaging sys tem. However, packaging in PET/ P E T. M E T / L D P E resulted in a product with superior quality followed by PET.MET/ LDPE and LDPE in terms of quality and c o n s u m e r a c c e p -tance. The developed products were 'very much liked' by school children of Bhopal across age group 10-18 years.

Image analysis for rice variety identificationImage analysis was explored for the classification of twenty seven rice varieties based on morphological characters and image texture analysis. Seeds of different variety were scanned using flatbed scanner at 600 dpi. Size, shape, chromatic and texture properties (31 attributes) were ascertained using a software developed on Matlab (2011) platform. Based on this discriminant analysis test runs were carried to identify the cultivar under test. In every run it was observed that the discriminant func-tion based on grain pa rame te r s cou ld identify the new culti-var under test correctly with zero error count estimate. The analysis clearly indicates that rice grain attributes like morphology, color, and texture features extracted using image analysis would help better identification and classification of rice cultivars based on seeds.

Hyperspectral Imaging SystemHyperspectral Imaging system (Make: Specim) has been in-stalled in the machine vis ion labo-ratory. The equipment is capable to acquire images in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm in 120 spec-tral bands. The equipment is useful in quality eva-luation of various agricultural products especially for determination of spatial distribution of certain chemicals/ bio-chemicals in a sample.

Consultancy A consultancy agreement has been signed with M/s JVS Foods Pvt Ltds., Jaipur on Plant hygiene, processing parameters, improvement in products and inhouse lab analysis facility development with a consultancy cost of Rs. 3.21 lakhs.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER/ TRAINING

4

TRAINING/ TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

KVK ACTIVITIES

KVK CIAE organized following trainings for 514 participants:

Farm implements machinery, tractor operation, care and maintenance

Farm machinery and post-harvest technology

Improved crop production technologies for kharif crops and sustains soil health

Improved production technology for paddy

Improved sowing techniques of soybean and paddy cultivation

Improved soybean and maize cultivation technology

Kharif crop producton technology

Paddy and soybean cultivation and soil health management

Paddy cultivation through SRI Method and soil health management

Soybean production technology and SRI method of paddy cultivation

On-Farm Trials

Extensive on-farm trials of following equipment/ crop was conducted in farmer's

field of nearby villages. Total 33 ha area was covered benefitting about 70 farmers.

Advisory/ diagnostic servicesKVK scientists provided 166 advisory services and 57 diagnostic services on the farmers' field.

Farmers visitedEleven exposure visits to KVK were promoted wherein 385 farmers visited from

the state of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and interacted with scientists.

Farmers were exposed to improved tools and equipment.

Events organized by KVK

KVK organized Krishi Vigyan Mela in collaboration with ATMA Bhopal during

May 28-30. About 1500 farmers participated.

Interface meeting with DDA Bhopal on June 4 in which 75 extension officials

participated.

KVK-ATMA convergence meeting to decide kharif progrmme on road side

villages. This was organized on the advice of Agriculture Production

Commissioner, Government of Madhya Pradesh on June 4. Officials from

seven line department took part in the programme.

Equipment/ Technology/ Crop

Purpose

Green gram (variety: TJM-3)

To increase the cropping intensity

Tractor operated zero till

seed drill

Sowing of summer moong

Pheromone trap

Control of fruit fly in bottle guard

Tractor operated raised bed

planter

Raised bed planting of bottle gourd Straw incorporation and field preparation

Potato peeler and slicer

Peeling of potato chip (5 kg)

Manually operated grain cleaner

Cleaning of wheat (21 q) and gram (15 q)

Serrated sickle Harvesting of wheat and gram crop

Groundnut decorticator Decortication of groundnut (10 q)

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER/ TRAININGTRAINING/ TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

5 April-June 2014

Training on Soybean Processing and UtilizationTwo trainings on production of soy milk and soy paneer were organized for total 21 participants during April 21-26 and May 19-26.Training on utilization of defatted soy flour for food uses was organized for 19 subject matter specialists of KVKs during May 26-30 and 22 Aanganwadi workers during June 11-13.

Training organized by PFDCOne training on Protected cultivation technologies was organized for 45 farmers of Damoh district during June 3-5.

Training under TSP programmeUnder Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) programme, three trainings on operation, adjustments and maintenance of improved farm machinery were organized for 43 tribal farmers of Roing District, Arunachal Pradesh (May 28-June 3), Sundarbans, West Bengal (May 31 to June 2) and Patalkaot, District Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh (June 10-13).

The participating farmers were given a set of naveen improved sickle and tubular maize shellers along with the certificate of participation. Lists of improved farm tools and equipment identified by the farmers beneficial for their use were also obtained, along with individual database on their farming situations.

Training for Engineering StudentsSixty-five engineering students participated in the month long training on Engineering technologies for enhancing production and productivity during June 1-30.

Training on CADSix trainings on Computer Aided Designing were organized for 30 students during the quarter.

Testing of Farm MachineryTest reports of the following equipment, which were received for testing have been provided to their manufacturers.

Implement Manufacturer

Tractor operated seed drill (11 tyne)

M/s Shyam Industries, Betul

Tractor operated seed cum fertilizer drill

M/s Modern Equipment, Ujjain

Power operated knapsack sprayer (2 & 4 stroke engine)

M/s Padgilwar Industries, Nagpur

Participation in ExhibitionCIAE technologies were exhibited in Kisan Goshthi at Sagar during during June 6-7 and at Vidisha during June 13-15.

Protoype Producction and SupplyThe institute supplied 1213 prototypes worth Rs. 8.52 lakhs to various stakeholders.

Media Activities

Topic Presenter Platform Date

Agro processing LK Sinha DDK, Bhopal

April 25

PL Singh AIR, Bhopal

May 5

Anurag Kumar Dubey

AIR, Bhopal

May 9

Healthy foods to be consumed in the summer season

Dipika Agrahar -Murugkar

AIR, Bhopal

May 25

Soybean processing for entrepreneurship

SD Kulkarni

DDK, Bhopal

May 30

RS Yadav

AIR, Bhopal

June 10

SD Kulkarni AIR, Bhopal

June 4

Non conventional renewable energy sources and its usage

Agriculture can be transformed into profitable vocation through use agriculture machinery

Timely advice regarding horticultural crops

Advantages of agro/ food processing

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

6

Licensing of CIAE Developed Technologies

Millet Mill : The license agreement for manufacturing CIAE Millet Mill was signed with Shri KG Rajasekar, Proprietor, AVM Engineering Industries, Salem in a launch workshop on April 27 at IEP Coimbatore. The workshop was presided over by Dr Pitam Chandra, Director. Dr N Vijayan Nair, Director, Sugarcane Breeding Institute; Dr C Divakar Durairaj, Dean, AERC, TNAU; Er Siva-prakasam, Superintending Engineer, Agricultural Engineering Department, Govt. of Tamil Nadu; and Dr PC Bargale, Head TTD, CIAE were the guests of honour.

Self-Propelled Multipurpose Hydraulic System for Orchard Operations: This versatile machine was licensed to M/s TAFE (Tractor and Farm Equipment), Chennai. The license agreement was signed on June 5 at ICAR, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi in gracious presence of Dr S Ayyappan, Secretary (DARE) & Director-General, ICAR. The officials present on this occasion included: Dr Pitam Chandra, Director; Mr. Kesavan, COO – Product Strategy and Corporate relations, TAFE; Dr D Rama Rao, DDG (Engg) & National Director-NAIP; Dr KK Singh, ADG (Engg) and CIAE Scientists – Dr VK Bhargav and Er AK Raul (the designers of this equipment).

Process technology of Soy Butter: CIAE developed technology for Soy-butter was licensed to M/s Bionutrients (India) Pvt. Ltd., Bhopal on June 12. The firm has its market presence for “Super-Fit”, popular soy-milk powder and “Tofu Gold”, soy-paneer. The license agreement was signed between Dr Pitam Chandra, Director and Shri Sumit K Agrawal, Director, Bionutrients (India) Pvt. Ltd, Bhopal at CIAE in the presence of Scientists and Senior Officers of CIAE.

Copyrights Granted Books

Sl.

No.

Title Author

1. Software for inventory management of perishable products (useful for food, feed and other perishables)

PP AmbalkarPC Bargale Karan Singh

2 . Decision support system and business models for custom hiring of farm machinery

Anurag K DubeyRS SinghKaran Singh

REPORT

Book Chapter

Singh, RC. 2014. Role of farm machinery in success of conservation agriculture. IN: Conservation Agriculture for Carbon Sequestration and Sustaining Soil Health. New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi. ISBN: 978-93-83305-32-2. Pp 371-390.

Singh, KP. 2014. Evaluation of conservation agriculture machinery on carbon emission : A case study. IN: Conservation Agriculture for Carbon Sequestration and Sustaining Soil Health. New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi. Pp 392-401.

Papers Published

Agrahar-Murugkar, Dipika, Nachiket Kotwaliwale, Chetan Gupta, Paridhi Gulati and Manoj Kumar. 2014. Optimization of soy-butter from sprouted soybean and its quality parameters. Journal of Food Quality. 37 (1) : 63–72.

Agrahar-Murugkar, Dipika. 2014. Effect of different process parameters on the quality of soymilk and tofu from sprouted soybean. Journal of Food Science and Technology. Doi 10.1007/s13197-014-1320-z.

Asokan, D, D Manohar Jesudas, R Kavitha and T Senthilkumar. 2014. Design and development of dehusker suitable for fresh arecanut. Journal of Plantation crops. 42 (1) : 101-107.

Chakraborty, SK, A Tiwari, A Mishra and A Singh. 2014. Rheological properties of refined wheat - millet flour based dough under thermo-mechanical stress. Journal of Food Science and Technology. DOI: 10.1007/s13197-014-1339-1.

Gangil, S. 2014. Beneficial transitions in thermo-gravimetric signals and activation energy levels due to briquetting of raw pigeon pea stalk. Fuel. 128 : 7-133.

Gangil, S. 2014. Dominant thermo-gravimetric signatures of lignin in cashew sell as compared to cashew shell cake. Bioresource Technology. 155 : 15-20.

Gangil, S. 2014. Thermo-gravimetric evidences for better thermal stability in char produced under unconfined conditions. Environmental Engineering Sciences. 31 (4) : 183-192.

Joshi, ND, D Mohapatra, DC Joshi and RF Sutar. 2014. Puffing characteristics of parboiled milled rice in a domestic convective-microwave oven and process optimization. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 7 (6) : 1678-1688.

Khanbarad, SC, ND Joshi, D Mohapatra, RF Sutar and DC Joshi. 2014. Effect of moisture content on some selected physical properties of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan). Journal of Grain Processing and Storage. 1 (1) : 6-12.

Mohapatra, D and S Bal. 2014. Rice colour measurement for various milling fractions. Journal of Grain Processing and Storage. 1 (1) : 28-33.

Mohapatra, D, SK Giri and A Kar. 2014. Effect of microwave aided disinfestation of Callosobruchus maculatus on green gram quality. International Journal of Agriculture and Food Science Technology. 5 (2) : 55-62.

Nandede, BM, H Raheman and GVP Kumar. 2014. Standardization of potting mix and pot volume for the production of vegetable seedlings in paper pot. Journal of Plant Nutrition. 37 : 1214-1226.

Nandede, BM, H Raheman and HV Deore. 2014. Selection of suitable furrow opener and furrow closer for vegetable transplanters. Agricultural Mechanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 45 (2) :40-47.

Singh, R, SK Giri and N Kotwaliwale. 2014. Shelf life enhancement of green bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) under active modified atmosphere storage. Food Packaging and Shelf Life. 1 (2) : 101-112.

Singh, R, SK Giri. 2014. Durability study of active packaged guava (Psidium guajava L.) : An experiment with potassium permanganate as ethylene absorber. Journal of Food Safety and Food Quality. 65 (2) : 32-39.

Singh, Ranjeet, Ashok Kumar and SD Kulkarni. 2014. Modified atmospheric packaging strategies to prolong the shelf life of chickpea (Cicerarietinum L.) sprouts. Agricultural Engineering. 39 (1) : 49-59.

Tripathi, MK and SK Giri. 2014. Probiotic functional foods: Survival of probiotics during processing and storage. Journal of Functional Foods. 9 : 225-241. Elsevier. DOI; 10.1016/ j.jff.2014.04.030.

Workshop on the use of Hindi in Computer ApplicationWorkshop on the use of Hindi in Computer Application was organized on June 30. About 40 employees from administrative and technical categories participated in this workshop which mainly focused on easy use of Hindi fonts in English Keyboard. This workshop immensely helped those employees who are not trained in Hindi typing.

7 April-June 2014

REPORT

Krishi Parivartan Yatra

The World Bank funded National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of ICAR has been highly successful and has

delivered more than 200 innovative technologies, services and models that benefitted farmers and entrepreneurs across

the country. To highlight and publicize the overall outcome of the Project, the ICAR–NAIP organised a Krishi Parivartan

Yatra which started from ICRISAT Hyderabad on May 11 with a stopover at CIAE, Bhopal during May 14-15 before its

schedule conclusion at IARI-NASC New Delhi during May 18-19 through a two day conclave.

A “Krishi Parvirtan Mela” was organized at CIAE on May 15. Before the formal inauguration, a visit to Institute Labs and

facilities was conducted for the 35 Yatris and the technologies developed by the Institute were demonstrated.

Besides the Yatris, about 250 local stakeholders - farmers, researchers & extension functionaries, financial institutions,

manufacturers/entrepreneurs, industrialists and policy makers participated to witness and extend the benefit of

achievements of NAIP to all the stakeholders.

The event was inaugurated by Shri Rajeev Choudhary, Director of Agricultural Engineering, Government of Madhya

Pradesh. Dr. AP Srivastava, NC, NAIP also graced the occasion. Dr. Pitam Chandra, Director welcomed the Yatris and

other participants and praised ICAR for organising this magnificent event. He also thanked ICAR for providing opportunity

to CIAE to become a part of the Yatra. During Inaugural session, success stories of NAIP were presented through videos to

share with the farmers/entrepreneurs of local geography.

The inaugural session was followed by panel discussion on agribusiness opportunities in India. It was an interaction

between Yatris from different states of India and local farmers and entrepreneurs. Few Yatris namely Shri Ritesh Paliwal

(Madhya Pradesh), Shri Prem Sankar (Rajasthan), Shri T Prasad, Sravanakumar and Shri Ramanathan (Tamil Nadu), Shri

Abdul Khalek (West Bengal) and Satisha (Karnataka) shared their experience and success stories. Several queries were

raised by the farmers regarding fish production, vegetable production, organic farming, floriculture and scented rice

production and package of practices. A press conference was also organized after the panel discussion in which more than

20 journalists/reporters from PIB interviewed the Yatris.

8

REPORT

CIAE BPD Unit Felicitated

The Team of BPD Unit of the Institute was felicitated for excellent conduct of Krishi Parivartan Mela at CIAE (May 15and for facilitation of Krishi Parivartan Yatra (May 11-19). Mr. Onno Ruhl, Country Head, World Bank felicitated Dr PC Bargale, PI, BPD-CIAE and Mr Jitendra Chhabra, Business Manager at the Agri Innovation Conclave, NASC, New Delhi on May 19.

Two members of BPD-CIAE were also felicitated. Shri R i t e s h P a l i v a l , a n entrepreneur as well as a selected Yatri of Krishi Parivartan Yatra, trained and groomed at the unit, for successfully setting up an enterprise of Custom Hiring of Agricultural Machinery in Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh. Another member, Er. Abhay Verma was honoured for developing and success-fully marketing millet based instant nutritional drink in Delhi-NCR. His business plan was adjudged among top 5 in the Agri Biz Idol Camp organized on this occasion.

Webpage of BPD-CIAE createdA webpage ( ) for user-friendly retrieval of bpd.ciae.res.ininformation about commercialized and ready to be commercialized agricultural engineering technologies has been created. Any user can directly access the useful information about various agricultural engineering technologies for planning and development of their business. It also functions as single window information portal on product/ technology suppliers, and advisory on feasibility of few agri-businesses. One can search the matching agricultural equipment crop-wise, operation-wise, based on power source, based on state and district as well as by the name of machine, implement or dealer. The webpage has information on BPD Unit's activities and services, membership and various categories of membership, information on commercialized and ready to commercialize technologies, etc.

Dr Nachiket joins as Head, APPD

Dr. Nachiket Kotwaliwale, Principal Scientist has joined as Head, Agro Produce Processing Division of the Institute on May 9. Dr Nachiket is an agricultural engineer educated at JNKVV, Jabalpur; CTAE, Udaipur and Oklahoma State University, USA. He joined the ICAR service in 1993 as a Scientist and is working at CIAE ever since. His professional accomplishments include 8 books/ proceedings, 27 research papers and some popular articles.

Selection

Our New Colleagues

Dr RH Sadhvatha Scientist (APE)

April 9

Er Ajay Yadav Scientist (Food Tech.)

April 9

Transfer Dr Ranjeet Singh, Scientist (SS) has been transferred to CIPHET Ludhiana on May 8.

Dr Dushyant Singh, Scientist has been selected as Senior Scientist (Mechanical Engineering) at CIAE. He joined the post on April 23.

Er GS Chouhan, Chief Technical Officer has been selected as Senior Scientist (FMP) at CIAE. He joined the post on April 23.

9 April-June 2014

REPORT/ NEWS FROM PERSONNEL FRONT

CIAE bids adieu to superannuating staff

Shri I Minj, Shri PS Parsai, Shri GR Dhurve (all Technical Officers), Shri CR Vishwakarma, Sr Technical Assistant; Er BK Gumasta, Chief Technical Officer and Shri Ramlal, SSS (Beldar) superannuated on April 30.

Shri RL Dhurve, Technical Officer, superannuated on June 30.

Shri GL Thakur, Assistant and Shri BP Batham, SSS (Beldar) took voluntary retirement on June 24.

They were all given a warm farewell. CIAE fraternity wishes them and their families a healthy and prosperous future.

Shri GL Thakur Shri BP BathamShri CR Vishwakarma

Shri I Minj Shri PS Parsai Shri GR Dhurve

Er BK GumastaShri Ramlal Shri RL Dhurve

Editor: Incharge, PME Cell (Dr Tarun Kapur); M/s SS Bagde and Kalyan Singh ; Mr K Shankar; Photography: Word Processing:

Publisher: Phone: Director, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (ICAR), Bhopal 462 038 (MP); 91-755-2737191, 2521001, 2521002;

Fax: E-mail: Web: 91-755-2734016; director@ciae.res.in; www.ciae.nic.in Kisan Call Centre Toll Free Number: 1800-180-1551

Dr Ramakant Tiwari, Assistant Chief Technical Officer joined on May 8 after completion of 4 years lien as Re-search Engineer at AICRP on UAE Centre, CAEPHT Ranipool, Sikkim.

Dr AK Mishra, Senior Technical Officer joined on May 2 after completion of 4 years lien as Research Engineer at AICRP on RES Centre, CAEPHT, Ranipool, Sikkim. Dr Mishra has also been promoted as Assistant Chief Technical Officer w.e.f. July 1, 2010.

Dr S Ganesan, Principal Scien-tist joined back on April 10 on transfer from ICAR Hq (Agri-cultural Engineering Division)

Old Colleagues Join Back