Shambhavi Priyam, Action for Social Advancement
Since seeing is believing, enormous efforts have been made to explain techniques for optimum production of minor millet crops in the 30 villages in Mandla and Dindori, Madhya Pradesh where the IFAD-EU NUS project has been in action. In January, Action for Social Advancement (ASA) took the process one step further with a two-day excursion to Kolli Hills, Tamil Nadu, where the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has been promoting conservation and use of millets with great success.
Seventeen custodian farmers were selected from the project areas to travel miles away from Madhya Pradesh to see how minor millet production, procurement, processing, and packaging takes place in these tribal communities in the Eastern Ghats. Under the guidance of MSSRF, the farmers in this area have been able to establish on-farm seed banks for millets. Processing units developed by MSSRF have been successful in de-husking up to 80% of the little millet grains, which was earlier only done manually with lower efficiency.
The delegation had an opportunity to visit the village-based mills for the grains, and the store where the packaged final products are sold to the customers. They also had a chance to taste several kinds of millet dishes, from ragi malt to chakli and thinai payasam. Seeing the importance of millet crops in this area and how they were being used, the custodian farmers were enthused to take back this knowledge to their villages and share with the members of their self help groups.
They were able to connect easily with the farmers in Tamil Nadu, despite having little knowledge of their language and were in fact excited to find the similarities between their native language (Gondi) and Tamil, both of which have Dravidian roots.
The completion of the trip left the farmers delighted and a lot more aware having seen with their eyes the actions which are now being promoted by ASA in their villages. The team found the tour beneficial from both a learning point of view and for the unique experience of travelling and meeting others like them, which the farmers would not gained otherwise.