After successfully nurturing two major online platforms, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SME) Corner and FreeTech Forum, the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) has initiated a Micro-Entrepreneurs Network (MICROENT) in the area of food processing.
The MICROENT is expected to become a common platform for the cottage and tiny food manufacturers to share their ideas and address the commonly faced technical challenges in running their enterprises.
The network of cottage and tiny food manufacturers has been initiated by a group of PhD students at CFTRI as part of their course work. Experts in Food Science and Technology will be guiding the participants with inputs while students will catalyse the activities.
The Forum would create various platforms in order to guide, mentor and share the knowledge towards building sustainable food processing in the tiny/cottage level including cluster development programmes.
A CFTRI scientist, who shared this information, told The Hindu that the initiative will start with entrepreneurs in Mysuru. “Depending on the response, we will consider throwing the platform open to entrepreneurs from the rest of the State”, he added.
Cottage and tiny food manufacturers, who are in the business of preparing food items like jams, pickles, papad, tomato puree, sauce etc., at their homes and the participants of the short-term skill development programmes held by the CFTRI can join MICROENT and benefit from the same.
The Institute will be working closely with District Industries Centre (DIC) and CII’s Mysuru chapter to realize the desired objectives.
The MICROENT follows similar online exercises taken up by CFTRI earlier that had received an overwhelming response.
The SME Corner is an online platform that connects SMEs with CFTRI and helps them set up their food businesses. SMEs who register on the platform will receive guidance not only on setting up their food industry, but also permit them to post queries under different categories, where experts and scientists will answer them.
