A total of 21 M.Sc. students in three batches have done their internship training program during June-July, 2023 at ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana. Ten students of M.Sc. (Food Science and Nutrition) from The Gandhigram Rural Institute - Deemed to be University, Gandhigram, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu have done their internship training program on “Banana - Post-harvest Handling, Processing Technologies and Entrepreneurial Opportunities” and Seven M.Sc. (Biochemistry) students from Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and four M.Sc. (Biotechnology) students from University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu have done their internship training program on “Biochemical, Pathological and Molecular Techniques in Banana”
The Food Science and Nutrition students were given hands on training of Post-harvest handling of fresh banana and their packing, storage and ripening; Technologies of making banana flour and flour based products etc; Extraction of cellulose, starch, pectin and pseudostem fibre, microbial testing of foods etc. Production technologies for various banana based value added products namely, Banana Fig, Banana cake, Pasta, noodles, flower pickle were trained to them. The Biochemistry and Biotechnology students were given hands on training on molecular techniques viz., DNA isolation, PCR, Real Time PCR, tissue culture, anther culture, gene editing, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission spectroscopy (ICP/OES) and Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) and Loop‐mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) based detection of viruses, molecular detection of banana diseases, Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS). The internship students were felicitated on 30 June, 2023. Dr. R. Selvarajan, Director, ICAR-NRCB gave away certificates and addressed the students. Dr. M. Mayil Vaganan, Nodal Officer (HRD) and Organizing Secretary gave welcome address. Course Directors, Drs. P. Giribabu and A. Mohanasundaram narrated the training report.