Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine

As a human being, I see “Food” as nutrition, health, culture, social equity, economic development, quality of life and global peace. Accessibility to “proper, nutritious, safe Food” assures optimum nutrition, there by “good quality of life” that builds a robust workforce leading to development. Any agricultural produce inevitably has to undergo some sort of a processing prior to consumption, thus it might be consumed as it is or with minimal processing or as a highly processed food or an isolated portion of it. The decision to transform a certain agricultural produce to a “proper, nutritious, safe Food” depends on the inherent traits of the respective primary food and the consumer demand. In a health-conscious era, the consumer demand is shifting towards organic, fresh/minimally processed therapeutic foods. However, postharvest handling along the farm-to-table chain can significantly compromise the nutritional quality of agricultural produce and subsequently food products manufactured from them. Further, in the environmentally and economically challenged times, we are facing risks of diminished inputs for agriculture, thus we are responsible for finding new methodologies and/or modifying existing methodologies to utilize what is locally available efficiently and sustainably to deliver “proper, nutritious, safe Food”. Thus, I aspire to research on sustainable processing techniques to enhance the functional capacity of locally available agricultural produce that constitute the daily diet.

Evaluation of regional differences in physico-chemical and processing characteristics of potato cyst nematode-resistant potato cultivar-Kitahime.