University of Illinois offers grain storage technology

Struggling to prevent its grains from rotting, India could learn key technology lessons from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, one of the world's leading universities in agricultural research.

Struggling to prevent its grains from rotting, India could learn key technology lessons from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, one of the world's leading universities in agricultural research.

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The university is set to sign on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research for research collaboration, university officials said on Monday. The university Chancellor Dr Robert Easter is also scheduled to meet Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

"We've developed technologies that have helped preventing moulding of grain in silos. That is something we could share with India," Easter said.

Professor K.C. Ting, who heads the university's department of agriculture and biological engineering, said the technology can be used in India. "We'll however need to do research in India to reduce the cost of using the technology," Ting said.

While specific projects are not included in the "generic" MoU, the university's research in food grains storage technology solutions is likely to prove a major area for India to gain from the partnership.