TRAINING OF THE PROJECT TITLED CAPACITY BUILDING ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO REDUCE POST-HARVEST LOSSES (2021-TURAGRIC-957)

International Agricultural Research and Training Center (GAPTAEM), ŞANLIURFA, TÜRKİYE 8-12 November, 2022

A five-day study visit to Turkiye was planned between November 8th-12th, 2022 within the framework of the project titled “Capacity Building to Reduce-Post Harvest Losses (2021-TURAGRIC-957)”, which was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture-TAGEM of Turkiye.

The project team from Pakistan, Prof. Dr. Hussnain A. Janjua (PI), Dr. Khurram Yousaf (Co-PI) and Dr. Hamood Ur Rahman, Director Research, from NUST participated in the said training and interacted with Turkiye government officials, COMCEC officials, and the scientists from the OIC member states such as Jordan, UAE, Tunisia, and Libya. During the training, various research opportunities were discussed to promote the collaborations between NUST, Turkiye, and other project partner countries. In addition, various cold storage and food processing industries were also visited.

The first day of training session was started with the opening remarks of the Dr. Murat CAKMAKLI, Provincial Director followed by Mr. İbrahim Halil ÇETİNER, Director of the GAPTAEM Institute Sanliurfa. They acknowledged the work by project teams from Turkiye, Pakistan and Jordan and emphasized to further collaborate and strengthen the research between collaborative countries to reduce the post-harvest losses. In addition, Ms Zeynep ÖZKAN Head of the Department of European Union Harmonization at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of European Union and Foreign Relations shared her views on measuring food loss and waste and turkiye’s national food loss and waste strategy. Mr. Ali Oruç from COMCEC secretariat and Prof. Dr. Hami Alpas project coordinators concluded the opening ceremony with their remarks.

In his presentation, Prof. Dr. Hussnain Ahmed Janjua (PI from Pakistan) shared his view on project team structure, and application of Nano-Biotechnology based materials to avoid post-harvest losses. Dr. Hussnain Ahmed Janjua explained the microbial contamination in rotten potatoes and apples and the way forward for capacity building of post-harvest losses project. He also suggested future collaboration between OIC countries through COMCEC and COMSTECH.

Dr. Khurram Yousaf (Co-PI from Pakistan) presented the preliminary results of experimental work with Control Atmospheric Boxes (CAB) – Food product used and preliminary results. In addition, Dr. Khurram Yousaf shared his view on Pakistan agricultural system and application of mechanical processing of agricultural products to reduce post-harvest losses and experimental setup in Pakistan industries under this project.

Dr. Hamood Ur Rahman, Director Research, explained NUST overview, research ecosystem and its linkage with COMCEC project to avoid post-harvest losses. He also explained the NSTP, SINES facilities at NUST, intellectual capital of NUST, Multidisciplinary strength of NUST as well as international academic linkages of NUST worldwide.

Total 25 National and International Speakers were invited from OIC member states Turkiye, Pakistan, Jordan, UAE, Tunisia, and Libya. The proposed theme of the event was directly related to the project objectives for training and capacity-building programmes, and the introduction of new technologies to reduce post-harvest losses in the storage of horticultural products.