Anantapur: DRDO Food Research Lab to set up groundnut incubation centre

Anantapur-Sathya Sai district: Farmers of the twin districts had long been demanding a Groundnut Research Centre for researching on producing quality groundnut quality seeds. Former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu promised a research centre but he failed to fulfill it. Keeping the export potential of peanuts in view, the DRDO Food Research Laboratory with the initiation of MP Talari Rangaiah has come forward to set up food processing units to ensure value addition to the groundnut produce. A Tomato incubation centre too will be set up soon.

Rangaiah told The Hans India that separate incubation centres for groundnut and sweet lemons will become a reality soon. Initially, the tomato incubation centre will produce tomato ketchup, powder, sauce and other biproducts. Squash and juice will be produced with sweet lemons and salted roasted peanuts and peanut butter with groundnuts which are in great demand in Western countries.

The best quality nuts will be identified by the DRDO for producing value added products including peanut butter, juices, chocolate nuts and bars which are consumed by the Western consumers due to their high protein value and taste. The single district is cultivating groundnut in 10 lakh acres with more than 7 lakh farmers and their families depending on the crop for their livelihood.

The groundnut or peanut crop is known in the west and has its roots in Brazil in South America. It is not an Indian plant species and much less of Telugu origin but interestingly the people of Anantapur district have owned the crop linking their destiny with the crop despite all the challenges of erratic monsoon being faced by the local farmers. Yet, a district that is contributing significantly to national and world production does not have agro-industries for producing value added products including peanuts butter which is popular in the Western countries.

The farmers are looking forward for the groundnut processing centres to be set up by the DRDO Food Laboratory. The country had exported 15 lakh metric tonnes of groundnuts to the world worth of Rs 10,000 crore in the 2017-19. But after Covid, the exports declined and the latest figures are not

available.