'Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss Industries Pvt. Ltd. lighting the lamp at the 4th National Banana Festival organized by CII'
Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 21 July 2017: Danfoss India, an industry leader focused on climate and energy efficient solutions, is participating in the 4th edition of the CII Tamil Nadu Banana Festival held in Madurai between 21st and 23rdJuly 2017. The company is showcasing its energy efficient solutions for the Indian agriculture and cold chain sector.
As part of this event, TNAU has inaugurated a model multi-purpose cold storage and ripening chamber for 8 to 14-degree fruits and vegetables. The facility is made energy efficient with Danfoss Cold Chain solutions. Furthermore, this facility will be used for skill and capacity development initiatives for students and farmers in the Cold Chain space by the University.
Mr. R Doraikannu, Hon’ble Minister for Agriculture, Government of Tamil Nadu, Mr. R B Udhyakumar, Hon’ble Minister for Revenue, Government of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Sellur K Raju, Hon’ble Minister for Co-operation,Government of Tamil Nadu, Mr. K A Sengottaiyan, Hon’ble Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, and Mr. Dindigul C Sreenivasan, Hon’ble Minister for Forests, Government of Tamil Nadu witnessed the inauguration of the facility along with Dr. K. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, Coimbatore, and Mr. Ravichandran Purushothaman, President - Danfoss Industries Pvt. Ltd. And Chairman CII Tamil Nadu.
Commenting on the launch, Dr. K. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Agricultural College & Research Institute, Coimbatore said, “With a world-class multi-purpose cold storage and ripening chamber in place, our aim is to enhance awareness of Cold Chain techniques with farmers, students and other interested stakeholders which will directly help improve the farmers income and reduce post-harvest losses. Moreover, with industry experts such as Danfoss on board, we are confident that the rate of knowledge transfer between the industry and academia will increase over time which will enable us to nurture industry-ready professionals for the sector”.
“India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world today. With the increasing rate of urbanization and perpetually growing population, it is fundamental to have an efficient cold chain infrastructure that further enhances the farm-to-fork process. The Banana Festival is an initiative that CII started about 4 years ago with the intention of educating farmers on how they can reduce post-harvest losses and thereby improve their income. When we started this journey, less than 5% of the bananas were being ripened scientifically; today we understand it is at 25% which will need further research but this is just the beginning. In the next five years, we should aim to make Tamil Nadu the global leader in bananas.”, Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss Industries Pvt. Ltd. said.
“The Indian Horticulture Sector needs investments in the cold chain space. We have a huge opportunity with India as the second largest producer of fruits & vegetables in the world and the largest producer of milk. We at Danfoss are committed towards ‘Engineering Tomorrow’s India’ in a sustainable manner, thereby unleashing India’s capacity of becoming the food factory of the world with our energy-efficient solutions for the Indian agriculture sector”, he added.
