The Maize Mela (July 4-8) in Bangalore had about 45 stalls offering new products, processing machinery, biotechnology innovations, starch, syrups for use. It attracted a large number of farmers from rural areas into the city. One stall that had interested farmers and traders thronging it was Kemin Nutritional Technologies. The stall showed how its products could be used for grain storing through a practical demonstration.

N Samraj, Director – Poultry and Aqua, Kemin Nutritional Technologies, spoke to indiamarkets aboutthe need for information among farmers on grain storage.

indiamarkets: What has brought you to this fair?
Samraj: We want to tell farmers that high moisture grains can also be preserved from moulds and toxins. Abroad, grain is treated and stored in silos. And it has certain levels of moisture. In India, farmers usually use dry grain. Traders too prefer only dry grain and do not accept it if it has even 10 per cent moisture in it. However, abroad, 15-16 per cent mositure is fine and accepted. We need to therefore create an awareness on how to store grains with 'high' moisture content. We hope to meet farmers and tell them about our products.

Incidentally, we are also introducing Myco Curb Dry, a solution for moulds, which has a good market presence as a feed protector. Mycocurb helps in preventing feeds from attacks by moulds between the production and consumption stages.The stored raw material is especially vulnerable to risks. Its quality, climatic conditions, changes in night/day temperatures can all encourage mould forming.

We are also taking to farmers and traders here about Toxi Bind Dry, which is a solution for mycotoxins. This product checks entry of mould into animal feeds.

indiamarkets: How has the response been to this?
Samraj: Our product is aimed at the farmers. They are the ones who will find our product useful. But before that, they have to know about it. We have to tell them that such a product, for both food and feed, exists. We cannot go and meet every farmer. So we work through government organisations and traders. They are the links between buyers and farmers. The traders can tell the farmers about the right quality grain at the right quality price. The information has to flow from us to the trader and then to the farmer.

Here, the response has been good, though it is still the first day. We hope to track down many traders and the Maize Mela is a good forum for this.

indiamarkets: How is the marketing done for this product?
Samraj: We have only direct marketing, all from Chennai. We have tried marketing in other places too such as Bylakuppe in Karnataka but we found that the farmers were not ready for it – more education on the subject is needed among farmers in these areas.

indiamarkets: Who are your customers?
Samraj: Our customers are poultry feed manufacturers, cattle feed manufacturers and the food industry, which uses it for starch, oil and for bakery requirements. All our buyers are large companies such as HLL, Nestle and Britannia.

indiamarkets: Where does the technology for developing your products come from?
Samraj: We have an R&D centre in Chennai, which focusses on post-harvest grain management. It works mainly on grains and other foods.