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Food biotechnology meet begins

Opening avenues: Christian Larroche inaugurating the two-day symposium on food biotechnology and nutrition in Thiruvalla on Friday.

PATHANAMTHITTA: ‘Biospectrum-2007,’ the two-day International Symposium on ‘Advances in Food Biotechnology and Nutrition’ organised by the School of Biosciences at Mar Athanasios College for Advanced Studies, Thiruvalla (MACFAST) began at the college auditorium on Friday.

Christian Larroche of Universite Blaise Pascal in France inaugurated the meet at a function presided over by the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Malankara Catholic Church, Thomas Mar Koorilos, at 10 a.m.

Fr. Abraham Mulamoottil, college principal, welcomed the gathering. C. Balagopalan, resident dean and coordinator of the event, and P.K. Abraham, MACFAST director, also spoke.

Dr. Premnath, former Assistant Director General of Food and Agriculture Organisation, released the souvenir brought out for the occasion by handing over the first copy to C.S.P. Iyer, dean of biosciences at MACFAST.

Dr. Premnath delivered the keynote address at the technical session on ‘Improving Indian agriculture using new generation science,’ later. Addressing the meet, Dr. Premnath said availability and application of modern technology remained the key issue in profitable and sound farming system, in keeping the balance between adequate input and higher output, and in maximising net returns.

According to him, conservation and appropriate utilisation of natural resources, balanced with availability and application of inputs, played an important role in increased agriculture production. Dr. Premnath said nanotechnology had the potential to revolutionise the agriculture and food industry with new tools for the molecular treatment of diseases, rapid disease detection, enhancing the ability of plants to absorb nutrients, etc.

P.K.K. Nair, Director of ERRC, Thiruvananthapuram, spoke on food, crops and health, later.

Fr. Mulamoottil said as many as 25 experts from different parts of the world were participating in the two-day symposium. The meet will come to a close on Saturday evening.

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