The present state of the planet Earth as it is expressed in the statistics on population growth, urbanisation, poverty, hidden hunger, climate change and globalisation of the market causing mobility of not only capital and human resources but also ideas and articles in an increasing tempo is an invaluable opportunity for the Indian Agro-food Sector and a great challenge to the Indian Agricultural Education and Research.

The opportunity for the Indian Agro-food Sector is the enormous treasure of knowledge available in the indigenous food culture, low cost of production, availability of basic raw materials and highly educated human resources along with the global market which readily accepts and appreciates Indian foods. The opportunity is also the growing and diversified urban market where the demand for safe and nutritious food with health promoting effects produced under environment friendly conditions is increasing.

The challenge to the Indian Agricultural research and education is to redefine its mission and the strategy to provide highly educated technologists for development and production of novel value added functional food products for the global market. A specially designed internationalised masters degree programme of two years duration in food science and technology with special emphasis on development and design of Indian food products for export is an immediate requirement.

The challenge is also to carry out research and development to acquire new knowledge which is necessary to design finished food products based on the traditional Indian food culture for the urban markets of the whole world. A national facility for scientific documentation of the health benefits and other qualities based on the data obtained by unbiased clinical trials and analysis on its own or in collaboration with other institutions in the country and/or abroad is also of utmost importance.

Promoting development of value added products for export is not only the best way policy makers, strategists, funding agencies, educational/research institutions can help the small scale Indian farmers to come out of the vicious circle of low productivity low income severe poverty hidden hunger low nutritional status to low productivity low income and severe poverty but it is also a good strategy for an over all national development of India.

To be effective some urgent steps are necessary. Primarily it is the focus which has to be shifted from selling quantity for a low price to selling quality for higher price. A shift from financing research for development of low cost indigenous foods for domestic market to promoting advanced research for value added food products for the international market. Then the research and development of low cost indigenous food products may be left for the small scale manufacturers to manage. The next is to change from educating many food technologists to educating the right kind of food technologists and from imparting general knowledge in food processing to special knowledge in food processing and improvement of the content and quality of education of food scientists to make them able to understand, analyse and respond to the needs/demands of the international urban markets.

In developing novel functional food products for export, Indian food culture, especially the indigenous fermented foods of India can offer a great advantage. The company Dr. Baboo´s Food Research And Development Company Private Limited has been registered with this background in mind.

To produce highly value added premium food products from Indian raw materials for the global market is our aim.

-Baboo M. Nair,       

Professor emeritus,Lund University, Sweden