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Launch of the FICSI-PATH COE for capacity building for Fortified Rice in India

by CSRBOX

Fortified rice is an excellent vehicle to deliver essential micronutrients, to provide a nutritional boost to the undernourished and vulnerable populations in India. Distributing fortified rice through the GoI’s food social safety net programs- ICDS, PM POSHAN and T-PDS is a huge window of opportunity since it has the potential to reach 800+ million people in India, especially women and children. The successful scale up of rice fortification in India, requires building the capacity of personnel throughout the fortified rice supply chain- from rice millers, premix and machine manufacturers, testing labs and frontline workers.

 

As a Sector Skill council, Food Industry Capacity & Skill Initiative (FICSI) accredits potential training providers having training infrastructure as per the guidelines for dissemination of training on our Qualification Packs. FICSI is engaged in various skill development initiatives of the Central/State Government either as a project implementation agency or as an assessment agency. FICSI works closely with several Ministries, Industry, NGOs to implement skill development program as well as generate a critical mass of industry employable skilled persons in food processing.

 

In this regard, FICSI and PATH collaborated for setting up skilling centres for rice fortification which will be geared up towards capacity building of essential human resources for the successful scale up of rice fortification in India. This collaboration will focus on bringing together a pool of highly informed, experienced, and skilled partners to utilise, sustain, and integrate rice fortification technology in India. The hub will play a significant role in establishing itself as an appropriate support unit for the expansion of large-scale food fortification in India, in line with our Hon'ble Prime Minister's agenda.

 

FICSI has created a job role namely, ‘Fortified Rice Technician’ for rice millers which can be leveraged for rice fortification to introduce the further advancement in scientific research on fortified rice and rice kernel manufacture across the nation. In future, FICSI will be coming up with various programs to roll out this training program.

  • FICSI will be developing training curriculum and conducting training programs for fortified rice, through partners pan-India, approved by National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) for skilling of fortified rice.
  • FICSI is working closely with PATH for setting up of skilling centers for Rice Fortification in phase manner in different areas, which will be geared towards the capacity building of essential human resources, for the successful scale up of rice fortification in India.
  • FICSI is developing the Participant Handbook (PH) for fortified rice which will cover the following parameters: Food safety and quality adhering to the FSSAI standards, premix quality, blending process of FRK with rice, etc.
  • Following points will be covered in the PH: cooking, stability and losses of micronutrients and taste which plays a very important role in any shift required.
  • FICSI is also developing videos on Rice Fortification which will be launched in the Skill India Portal through which students can enhance their knowledge about fortification.
  • Through these videos, FICSI wants to educate people on the importance of introducing fortified rice in their diet which is also included in the Eat Right India.
  • In the later run, FICSI will be joining hands with other industry players for building content, talent and funds for the rice fortification sector.
  • FICSI will be coming up with more job roles related to fortification for other four staples which are: wheat flour, edible oil, milk and double fortified salt.

    • Tags:

    Nutrition MoU Collaboration