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Sweet potato (Ipomea batatus) based complementary food was formulated from locally available foods by using different processing technologies like tray drying, roasting and sprouting. Three supplements were developed from locally available least expensive food items. Three different formulations were prepared from black rice, green gram, sweet potato, sesame seed; pumpkin seed, groundnut by incorporating them in varied compositiuon and analysed for their nutrient and functional properties by following standard procedures. The moisture content of the sweet potato based complementary mix was 6.97%. The protein content of the complementary food blends are within the RDA values (13-14g) for infants as recommended by Nutrition Research Council (1989). Crude fat content was 2.29% followed by ash 2.74%, crude fibre 2.10%. The calcium and iron content of the complementary food was 530mg/100gm dry weight and 8.7 mg/100gm dry weight respectively. The bulk density of the sweet potato based complementary food mix was 0.71g/ml followed by water holding capacity 9.80g/100g. The viscosities of the formulation from 10%, 20% and 30% slurry concentration with spindle-4 ranged from 1.0±0.02-1.6±0.06 mPa.s, 12.2±0.16-12.4±0.21 mPa.s and 28.5±1.13-39.7±1.17 mPa.s respectively. The present study showed that the sweet potato based complementary food mix formulated from locally available food commodities (black rice, green gram, sesame seed, pumpkin seed and groundnut) met the nutritional needs of the children between 6 months to 2 years of age. Also, the present study established that the processing methods (sprouting) carried out had a positive influence on the nutritive values of the formulated diets.

The functional, sensory, nutritive, phytochemical and antioxidant properties of flours derived from wheat, foxtail millet and ginger along with the cookies formulated from these ingredients was studied. The foxtail millet (20, 30 and 40%) and ginger powder (5, 10 and 15%) blended wheat flours were investigated and compared to control (100% wheat flour). The increase in substitution levels of both the alternatives improved the functional properties of the composite flour and cookies formulated. Sensory analysis revealed that cookies prepared from 30% foxtail millet and 10% ginger powder had comparable scores. These were further subjected to nutritive and phytochemical analyses. The results revealed that cookies formulated using both the alternatives had reasonable proximate composition comparable to control. The substituted cookies had higher total soluble phenolic content and antioxidant capacities in terms of DPPH and ABTS scavenging potential and a strongly positive correlation was observed between the total soluble phenolic content and antioxidant capacities in composite flour and the cookies formulated from the flours. Overall the addition of foxtail millet flour (30%) and ginger powder (10%) improved the nutritional and phenolic linked antioxidant potential which can lead to shelf life extension and enhanced health benefits.

This study was conducted to determine the influence of incorporation of jackfruit seed flour in cakes. Jackfruit being abundantly available in Meghalaya during the spring-summer season is one of the most popular fruit in the state. However, the seeds often tend to be discarded or underutilised. Incorporation of jackfruit seed flour in recipes such as cakes will serve as a rich source of protein, starch and dietary fibres and can also be regarded as an abundant yet cheap source of the said nutrients. The seeds of mature, unripe jackfruit were used for making the cakes. Three variations of cakes with the incorporation of different amounts of the seed flour i.e., 20 per cent, 30 per cent and 40 per cent by replacing refined wheat flour were compared with a control. The cakes were evaluated on their sensory characteristics i.e., colour, appearance, texture, taste, aroma and overall acceptability. It was observed that incorporation of the seed flour at 30 per cent was the most acceptable with no affect on the sensory characteristics. It was concluded that refined wheat flour can be substituted with jackfruit seed flour at 30 per cent in preparation of cakes.

To achieve gainful development in agriculture to ensure food security in the north-eastern Himalayan region of India, an initiative was taken to develop mobile phone based agro-advisory system with the objective to empower the farmers by providing right information at right time through Information and Communication Technology mediated extension approach. 2000 farmers and farm women were selected as beneficiaries through snowball sampling method based on certain criteria. The major features of the system to deliver the farm advices (Pull Based) and information services (Push Based) through toll free Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), Smart Phone Application, Mobile phone and Web based agriculture advisory system. It was found that on an average almost 200 advisories were provided every month, which even shoot up to almost 300 calls per month in the peak Kharif seasons as bulk of the advisories were provided during the months of May to November as most number of calls from the farmers came during the period. Majority of the advisories were provided on fishery management practices (17.32%), source of seed (9.95%), livestock management (9.18%), disease and pest management of crops (8.75%), training information (9.35%), rural development schemes (7.76%) etc. Moreover, the inclusion of need based training component and convergence with different extension functionaries helped to develop an ICT based Stakeholder Interface (Experts-Line Departments-Agripreneurs-Farmers) in the field of agriculture in the region. This alternate extension system also helped to develop better rapport with the farmers and can be replicated in other hilly region of the world.