Summary:
The delegation will visit other facilities at the institute on Wednesday and Thursday. A draft MoU will also be prepared for seeking approval of the respective governments, Prof Mohan informed. Kanpur: A six-member delegation from Nigeria Sugar Development Council is on a four-day visit to National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur to seek the institute’s help in establishing Sugar Academy in Nigeria.NSI will provide technical consultancy for capacity expansion and efficiency improvement of existing sugar plants in Nigeria, said NSI director, Prof Narendra Mohan.The delegation has requested NSI authrities to conduct short duration training programmes for their technical personnel before setting up the sugar academy in Nigeria. The delegation, led by Adewale Bakare, director, Industrial Development, Federal ministry of industry and trade and Investment, Nigeria, is accompanied by Chris C.
Mbamalu and other senior officials, Prof Mohan said.“Nigeria is a sugar deficient country producing only about 80,000 metric tonnes of sugar per annum against its requirement of about 16 lakh metric tonnes, and thus 5% of its domestic requirement is met through own production, said Prof Mohan.“We are advising our Nigerian counterparts to focus on sugarcane and sugar productivity besides aiming at setting up integrated complexes for producing other value added products, particularly going in for generation of bio-energy”, he added.The delegation visited the academic area of the NSI to see teaching and training facilities, and laboratories..