Human & Natural Resources Development Society

Summary
Through this project, 7 varieties of millets were promoted with 260 farmers in 5 mandals around the Kadiri area in Andhra Pradesh.  Millets cultivation was traditionally part of India’s agricultural landscape, but lost out due to the Green Revolution and state subsidies on other grains. This project meant to increase millet production and consumption, which could provide a great agricultural alternative for the local populations. The initiative also focussed on developing a processing facility for millet products, marketing of millet foods, networking with institutions that work on millets and detailed documentation of the cultivation process.

Impacts

• 20 villages have taken up millet production
• From 2 of the Mandals almost 130 farmers took up millet production over much of their land
• 2.5 tonnes of millet is being processed monthly at the facility in Kadiri
• Receiving requests for millet recipes through marketing, and also a hotel in Mysore has  incorporated millets as part of their menu

Insights

•  Awareness has to be raised about millets in the consumers
• Identified health benefits of millets consumption especially for diabetic patients
• More fine tuning of the operations facility is being conducted to improve operations and fix critical gaps