Financial Times

ITI on its 50th anniversary looks for answers
Does rice make us sleepy and lethargic?
By Quintus Perera
Everyone knows that productivity in Sri Lanka is low but could that be because we eat too much rice and that makes us sleepy and lethargic?
Maybe … maybe not! However as the Industrial Technological Institute (ITI) marks its 50th anniversary, the country can rest assure that this great state body – which hasn’t got the recognition that it deserves not only from government funding but also the public and the business community – is looking for answers in this area of development.

Says Dr M G M U Ismail, Deputy Director (Research and Development), ITI, “Sri Lankans are heavy rice eaters just like people in other countries like Japan. But when we eat rice we feel sleepy.

The reason is that our rice has less iron. As a major national project we are working on a highbred rice project to develop varieties of rice with more iron and also with low glycaemic indices to suit diabetic patients, etc.”
Passing an important milestone of 50 years in existence, ITI – formerly the Ceylon Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISIR) - stands tall in the sphere of industrial development of Sri Lanka.

In addition to assisting industrialists by developing new technologies for them to suit the local conditions and the use of indigenous raw material, ITI is also involved in developing major technological innovations, where they have become critical issues. One such crisis issue is air, water and environment (garbage, solid waste etc) pollution. ITI has solutions for all these problems.
But as in the past, trying to make these innovations commercially viable and attract private sector investment has been the core problem of the institute.
The institute then CISIR was established on April 12, 1955 and to coincide with its Golden Jubilee, a large National Science and Technology Exhibition was held from November 5 to 10 at the ITI compound.

The exhibition was also held as a felicitation to the Arthur C Clarke Centre for Modern Technology as it has been 60 years since Dr Arthur C Clarke predicted about the satellite communications.

Among the large number of leading science and technology institutes that participated at the exhibition were the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD), the Atomic Energy Authority and National Science Foundation.

Though ITI has played its role silently, it has been a forerunner to the national industrial development with its immense contribution to most of the leading industries that have come up with new technologies in various sectors.
It has pioneered in developing coconut paste and bottling coconut milk to preserve coconut and converting coconut waste water to vinegar. These technologies have already been transferred to various companies.

ITI’s Dr Ismail told The Sunday Times FT that they are working on rubber based industries and also gradually moving towards developing technology mainly in environment area. “We have especially developed waste water treatment plants for multi-national companies in the Free Trade Zones. Most of the leading industries we have developed technology at ITI.”
He said that they were also experimenting on a rice-based instant food product that could be consumed like a cake in solid form, where other ingredients like vegetables and necessary protein is added to conform to nutritional food values.

ITI is also developing technologies to preserve fruits and vegetable but ensuring its freshness. It has already developed a technology to preserve lime for about one month. Already some of these technologies have been transferred to farmers in Moneragala and Bibile.

Though Sri Lanka is the largest exporter of fibre coir, exporters have expressed a lack of research and development in this area. Coir has been exported to other countries and they provide the value addition, which could be done in Sri Lanka and bring more financial dividends to the country. However based on a proposal by coir industrialists, ITI is now working on new applications like composite which can be used for interiors even in vehicles and also as an insulation board and for cement bonded structural items.

The coir pith (Kohu bath) is just thrown away and impacts negatively on the environment. ITI has now made a major breakthrough in turning this waste into a valuable product. Earlier small portions were exported for horticulture now but now ITI has perfected a process where coir pith can remove oil from factory waste-water and release pollution-free water into the environment.

The technology is now transferred to some large companies to be further developed. Marketing of this product would be done by a Japanese company. At the exhibition, there were various institutions displaying important achievements like crystal clear coconut oil by the Coconut Research Institute and low cost brick making with cement and earth by NERD.

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