Deep Roots

[

] 99

Development and promotion of new marketable millet products

Value chain building required specialized training on value-

added product development, maintaining consistent product

quality, packaging, labelling and marketing. The selected

members of SHGs were trained on value addition at agricul-

tural universities at Bangalore and Dharwad. This training

programme, planned and supported by MSSRF, empowered

village women for the production of 11 value-added items like

malt, rava and readymade mixes of millets.

Establishing and promotion of market for value-added

millets products

Though farmers have experience in marketing the primary

produce, they lacked capacity in marketing value-added

products. Through a gradual process members of SHGs

with marketing skills were identified and promoted to

undertake product marketing with local retail outlets. The

most popular and largely sold millet products were found to

be readymade mixes, milled rice of little millet and Italian

millet, and finger millet malt. Product differentiation and

branding were found to be important tools for obtaining a

competitive market position. Products are being marketed

in 15 districts in Tamil Nadu province under the brand

name Kolli Hills Natural Foods. To increase awareness of

the nutritional quality of millets and their derived prod-

ucts, MSSRF and SHGs are actively engaged in promoting

millet products through exhibitions at various forums.

Establishing community institutions for promotion of millets

MSSRF organized local farm women and men, who are more

enthusiastic in the cultivation and consumption of millets,

into SHGs and farmers’ clubs (FCs) under the umbrella of

a federation registered as a society – institutionalized into

the Kolli Hills Agrobiodiversity Conservers’ Federation

(KHABCoFED) in 2009. The current membership stands

at 47 SHGs and 62 FCs consisting of 1,511 members. The

SHGs were encouraged to build collective savings from

their income, carry out a financial lending service within

the group (often linked with local banking services), and

trained and supported to collectively undertake farming

related activities such as the promotion of millet cultiva-

tion. Either specific SHGs or members of different SHGs are

facilitated and promoted to undertake specific activities of

their interest, such as improved production practices, variety

selection, quality seed production, management of millet

processing units, grain procurement and transportation

to processing centres, and building the value chain. SHGs

in 15 villages, located in seven panchayats have their own

community seed banks and institutional system for regular

seed production, distribution and exchange. Over a period

of 12 years (2001-2013), the cultivation, procurement, value

addition, diversification and sale of products have generated

a gross income of US$30,900.

Traditional agricultural practices in Koraput

The Koraput district in Odisha state, India is renowned for

the genetic diversity of Asian cultivated rice and has been

considered as centre of origin of the Aus ecotype of rice

Oryza sativa

. This area is known as ‘Jeypore tract’ in rice

literature and has drawn the attention of rice biosystematics,

geneticists and conservationists for the last half a century.

This area is inhabited by many agrarian tribal communi-

ties, notably Bhatra, Gond, Paroja, Bhumia, Gadaba, Kandha,

Saora, Bonda and Koya who practice hill agriculture and

The PGUS farmers’ association, formed by the tribal community of Jeypore in Orissa, disseminates appropriate technologies to

conserve and enhance the production of local crops

Image: MSSRF

eep

oots