National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), ICAR and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) organized a two day workshop on ‘Impact of capacity building programs under NAIP’ on June 6-7, 2014 at AP Shinde Auditorium, NASC Complex, Pusa, New Delhi. The main purpose of the workshop was to present and discuss the findings of the impact evaluation study on capacity building programs under NAIP by IFPRI. The scientists from ICAR and agricultural universities were sent abroad to receive training in specialized research techniques. Post-training, scientists were expected to work on collaborative projects within the ICAR, which would further enrich their knowledge and skills, expand their research network and stimulate them’ to improve their productivity, creativity and quality of their research. The ICAR commissioned with IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) to undertake an evaluation of these capacity building programs under NAIP in July 2012. The workshop shared the findings on the impact of capacity building programs under NAIP and evolve strategies for future capacity building programs

1. Impact assessment of International Trainings
in Frontier Areas of Agricultural Sciences
•Name of the Scientist : Anju Arora
•Organization: Indian Agricultural Research Institute,
New Delhi
•Duration of Training with Dates: 87 Days, 7.11.2010 to 1.2.2011
•Area of Training: Fermentation Technology ( Biofuels)
•Place of Training: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering,
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.
•Expenditure INR 4, 56,247

2. Research Work undertaken/techniques learned during training
• Dilute acid pretreatment and enzymatic saccharification of woody
substrates.
• Optimize enzymatic saccharification: the necessary enzyme dosage, time,
substrate loading and maximize the carbohydrate concentration in
hydrolysates.
• Studying inhibition of cellulase by pretreatment byproducts
• Sugar and product analysis through HPLC as a number of oligomers with
different degree of polymerization are formed as a result of pretreatment
and enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulase preparation and only analytical
techniques like HPLC and CPC give fine resolution and details about the
formation of these products. This enables better understanding of the
kinetics of enzyme reaction and deconstruction of biomass

3. Research being undertaken in the area of training.
• NFBSFARA project on Increasing the efficiency of microbial production of
bioethanol from agricultural biomass ( as Co PI)
• Institute’s challenge program on Biofuels Bioprospecting of
microorganisms for sustainable production of second generation liquid
biofuels
• AMAAS project Title: Metabolic engineering opportunities for enhanced
production of biofuels through microbes.
Students working
• Biological delignification
• Production of Biomass hydrolysing Cellulase cocktails
• Pentose fermenting yeasts

4. Training organized student guided etc. in the area of
training.
National Training
• Core National Resource Person in National Training Programme on
‘Fermentation Technology’ with an emphasis on ‘Methods & Scale-up
Strategies in Fermentation’ to be organized between 9th December and
22nd December2011
Students Guidance
Microbial treatment of lignocellulosic substrate for enhanced enzymatic
digestibility
Bioprospecting Xanthomonas strains for production of hydrolytic enzymes
involved in lignocellulosic decomposition.

5. Achievements in the above area of training
• List of Publications
• Pandiyan, K., Tiwari, R., Singh, S., Nain, P.K.S., Rana, Arora, A., Singh,
S.B. and Lata Nain 2014. Optimization of Enzymatic Saccharification of Alkali
Pretreated Parthenium sp. Using Response Surface Methodology. Enzyme
ResearchVol. 2014 (2014), Article ID 764898,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/764898
• Anamika Sharma, Sharma R, Arora A., Raghubir Shah, Arjun Singh, Kumar Pranaw
and Lata Nain. 2014. Insights into rapid composting of paddy straw augmented
with Efficient Microorganism consortium. International Journal of Recycling of
Organic Waste in Agriculture. DOI10.1007/s40093-014-0054-2
• Arora, A., Martin, E., Pelkki M. H. and Carrier D. J. 2013. The effect of formic acid
and furfural on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose powder and dilute acid pretreated
poplar hydrolysates. The ACS Sustainable Chemistry and
Engineering, DOI: 10.1021/sc3000702, 1, 23−28
• Tiwari, R., Rana, S., Arora, A., Singh, S., Lata and Saxena, A.K. 2013. Biological
delignification of paddy straw and Parthenium sp. using a novel micromycete
Myrothecium roridum LG7 for enhanced saccharification. Bioresource technology,
(DOI information: 10.1016/j.biortech.2012.12.079)

6. • Saritha Mohanram, Amat, D., Choudhary, J., Arora, A. and Lata Nain 2013. Novel
perspectives for evolving enzyme cocktails for lignocellulose hydrolysis in biorefineries.
Sustainable Chemical Processes, 1:15
• Saritha, M., Arora, A., Singh, S. and Lata. 2013. Streptomyces griseorubens mediated
delignification of paddy straw for improved enzymatic saccharification yields. Bioresource
Technology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.11.040
• Amat, D., Arora, A. Lata and Saxena A.K. 2013. Biomass hydrolyzing enzymes from plant
pathogen Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae: Optimizing production and characterization.
Annals of Microbiology,(DOI: 10.1007/s13213-013-0659-0 )
• Pandiyan, K ., Tiwari, R., Rana, S., Arora, A., Singh, S., Saxena, A. K., Nain, L. 2013.
Comparative efficiency of different pretreatment methods on enzymatic digestibility of
Parthenium sp. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, DOI 10.1007/s11274-013-
1422 Volume 30 (1)pp 55-64
• Rana S., Tiwari R., Arora A., Singh S., Kaushik R., Saxena A.K., Datta S.C. and Lata. 2013.
Prospecting Parthenium sp. pretreated with Trametes hirsuta, as a potential bioethanol
feedstock. Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bcab.2013.02.002
• Saritha, M., Arora, A and Lata. 2012. Pretreatment of paddy straw with Trametes hirsuta for
improved enzymatic saccharification. Bioresource Technology, 104; 459–465

7. • C. Djioleu, A. Arora, E. M. Martin, J. A. Smith, M. H. Pelkki, and D. J. Carrier 2012.
• Sugar recovery from the pretreatment/enzymatic hydrolysis of high and low
specific gravity Poplar clones. Agricultural. Food and Analytical Bacteriology, Vol.
2 (2) 121-131.
• Saritha, M., Arora, A and Lata. 2012. Biological Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic
substrates for enhanced delignification and enzymatic digestibility. Indian Journal
of Microbiology (DOI 10.1007/s12088-011-0199) 52(2):122–130.
• Saritha, M., Anju Arora, A.K. Saxena and Lata 2011. Paddy-straw biodelignification
for improved saccharification and ethanol production. ICAR NEWS Vol. 17 (3); pp13

8. Future Plan of work
• Imparting Training to students and fellow scientists
through national training program and guidance
• Work towards standardising pretreatment and
enzymatic saccharification of key feedstocks
• Developing a model process for efficient
deconstruction and saccharification and getting
maximum sugar recovery
• Developing Indigenous Enzyme cocktail (cellulase
and xylanase preparation)