Uttar Pradesh, a major producer of wheat in India, and a leading producer of wheat-based baked products boasts of several manufacturing units. These units are run by small entrepreneurs who produce baked food products every day to cater to the growing demands of a population seeking convenience along with choice and taste. With a steep rise in consumption over the years, there is a corresponding need to improve the quality and nutritional content of the products. The increased demand coupled with mushrooming bakery retail outlets has resulted in a need for more skilled bakers.

In order to stimulate the baked comestibles sector, the Agricultural Innovation Partnership (AIP) has brought together an eminent faculty from across the world to train small-scale producers of baked products, students, unemployed youths and homemakers from the low and middle income segments. AIP, funded by the USAID, is a consortium of leading agricultural universities and institutions in India and US Land-grant Universities managed by Sathguru Management Consultants.

AIP's unique program aims to provide participants with innovative avenues for employment and inculcate a tradition of independent enterprise towards economic progress. An added benefit of this initiative is the improvement of the nutritional quality, safety and shelf life of baked goods and a wider choice of products for the discerning consumer. The program will not only help the target group nurture entrepreneurial skills required to manage the bakery business at a small scale, techniques to expand it and promote self-sufficiency, it will also provide hands-on training to the participants in the current proven hygienic practices involved in manufacturing different types of Indian/Western breads, pizzas, cakes, pastries, cookies, etc. The participants will also learn to handle several different kinds of machines involved during the production.

The participants will be trained at the Food Processing Unit of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology (SVPUA&T). The unit at SVPUA&T boasts of a well-equipped laboratory for manufacturing baked products. The training and demonstration sessions will witness the convergence of Dr. Poul M. T. Hansen and Ms. Vivian Harvey from Ohio State University, USA; Mr. Asif Ali Abidi from the Institute of Hotel Management, Meerut; Mr. Chandan Pandey from the Collectorate, Food Safety and Drug Administration, Aligarh and Prof. Samsher from SVPUA&T on 6-8 November, 2012.