GITAM to train rural youth in Alamanda

Visakhapatnam: GITAM University is planning to establish a training centre at Goddukommu village in Alamanda taluk in Vizianagaram district to train the small farm holders and rural unemployed youth.

Reviewing the project on Friday, GITAM UGC Affairs Director Prof Ch Ramakrishna said the training centre will be supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India under Science for Equity Empowerment and Development (SEED) project.

He said the project is aimed to uplift poor and disadvantaged sections through science and technology inventions in rural areas. The university is planning to train the rural youth particularly Alamanda and surrounding villages on various food processing activities to improve the quality standards.

Alamanda is famous for mango jelly preparations, but the present processing activities are in very poor condition and the proposed training centre would enhance the quality and taste of Alamanda mango jelly through quality aspects like using solar dyers, long period preservation methods, Ramakrishna explained.

The centre will also train the local women and unemployed youth on banana tissue culture and to acquire training in handling mechanical equipment to train the local farmers on goat meat processing also. He hoped the training centre would benefit a large number of farming community.

GITAM Institute of Science Principal Prof K Arunalakshmi, DST-SEED Programme Coordinator Dr I Sarat Babu and others participated in the meeting.