Nutritious food is human's fundamental need. Hence, to address this subject matter of international importance, ASSOCHAM is organizing a National Conference on Millets: The Future Super Food for India at 9:30 AM on 23 June, 2022 at Hotel Le-Meridien, New Delhi. This conference will provide the platform for food industry leaders; practitioners; scientists; farmers; organized agriculture; civil society; government policymakers, the private sector; and NGOs to discuss and share experiences on successes and to deliberate the challenges to nutrition through food with special focus on innovation, marketability & palatability.

All stakeholders in the food and beverage industry can benefit from the panel discussions of the expert professionals sharing their views on combating malnutrition, strengthening the value chain for millets, evaluating consumer demand and promotion, and the transition from staple to millets, etc. The conference will focus on the following objectives:

• To attain Nutritional Security through the cultivation of Millets and to develop a novel food product range from Millets.

• To improve ways to reach the most vulnerable population with nutritious foods and strengthen the food distribution system to eliminate food and nutrition insecurity.

• To strengthen institutional and policy environments, processes and incentives that foster appropriate forms of collaboration across nutrition-relevant and millet-based sectors (such as food processing, health, education, etc.).

• To strengthen and seek ways to make the regulatory framework as per our country's needs.

• To align agricultural research investments to support nutritional improvements, such as more research on millet's shelf-life enhancement after post and pre harvest.

• To improve infrastructure for processing, storage, and preservation to retain nutritional value and food safety, reduce seasonality and postharvest losses, and make healthy foods convenient to prepare.

• To develop a viable millet production value chain and to promote marketability and awareness for the Millets.

Inauguration and Release of Knowledge Report

Chief Guest Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, Hon'ble Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, GoI will inaugurate the conference and release the 'Knowledge Report'. The inaugural session of the conference will include welcome and theme address by Vivek Chandra, Chairman, Food Processing and Value Addition Council, ASSOCHAM & CEO-Global Branded Business, LT Foods; Tarun Vij, Country Director India, GAIN; Bhupesh Chaudhary, Department of Industries, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi; and Minhaj Alam, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, GoI. Ramsinh Rathwa, Chairman, Tribal Co-Operative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) will give a special address.

Arun Om Lal, Co-Chairman, Food Processing and Value Addition Council, ASSOCHAM & President-Corporate Affairs & Communications, Hexagon Nutrition, will conclude the inaugural session with his remarks and vote of thanks.

Session 1 - Millets – Exploring opportunities to harness consumer demand and promoting millets as the source of essential nutrients

Time Duration – 12:00 – 13:30

Chairpersons: Dr. Neelam Patel, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog; and Dr. S K Malhotra, Former Agriculture & Horticulture Commissioner and Project Director, ICAR-DKMA

Panelists

• Dr. Subrata Dutta, Co-Founder of India Millet Initiative and Former India Representative of FFI/CDC, USA

• Dr. Krishna Sannigrahi, Associate Director Health and Nutrition, Grameen Foundation India

• Shruti Pandey, Project Coordinator- Bhoomi Ka, Welthungerhilfe, India

• Prateek Uniyal, Program Manager- India, HarvestPlus

• Dr. Bhupesh Vaid, Evaluation Zone Lead- Millet and Mustard, Corteva Agrisciences

• Pallavi Upadhyaya, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Millets for Health

• Meena Jain, Nutritionist and Founder, Mighty Millets

Session 2 - Way forward to develop and strengthen the value chain for millets

Time Duration – 14:30 – 16:00

Chairperson: Dr. Dayakar Rao B, Principal Scientist (Agri. Economics), Indian Institute of Millet Research

Panelists

• Bhramar Jyoti Brahma, Director, Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium

• Ishank Gorla, Programme Lead, Commercialisation of Biofortified Crops, GAIN

• Sanjay Gupta, MD and CEO, NCML

• Sunil Kumar, General Manager, Kejriwal Bee Care India Pvt. Ltd.

• Pranay Sinha, Programme Policy Officer (South-South Cooperation), World Food Programme

• Ravinder Grover, Program Lead, HarvestPlus

Details of the Conference

Theme - Millets – The future superfood for India

Date - 23 June 2022

Time - 10 AM to 4 PM IST

Venue - Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi

Delegate Fee: Rs 2,500/- (Including GST) Per Delegate; For International Delegate: US$ 50 Per Delegate (10% discount for more than 2 Registration from same company)

For more information, please feel free to contact Raghav Sharma – 6377022294, email - raghav.sharma@assocham.com or Nitesh Sinha – 9968388144, email - nitesh.sinha@assocham.com