An opportunity

Small millets, a sub-set of millet crops, include six crops namely finger millet (Kezhvaragu), little millet (Samai), kodo millet (Varagu), foxtail millet (Thinai), barnyard millet (Kudiraivali), and proso millet (Panivaragu). While there are many research studies that inform the nutritional superiority of small millets, there has been a drastic decline in production and consumption over the last few decades. The cultivated area in India declined by 46% for finger millet and 80% for small millets other than finger millet from 1966 to 2009. Consumption declined by 45 % for finger millet from 1987-88 to 1993-94. On the other side, India is reeling under multiple large scale malnutrition issues like anaemia and underweight among women and children and Prime Minister called these issues as ‘a national shame’. These malnutrition problems are spread across rural and urban areas and across all the economic classes. There is an opportunity to address these malnutrition concerns by facilitating inclusion of small millets in mainstream diets. Inclusion of small millets by the common public will also create a favourable environment for production through increased demand. But for this to be realised large scale promotion of small millets is needed.

In terms of awareness and consumption of small millets, the common public can be divided into three categories: First category includes people who perceive that small millets are nutritious but do not consume; the second category meagre in number includes people who are advised by doctors to consume small millet recipes as a diet component for their health problems and the third category includes urban people who have not heard about small millets. Social image and reluctance to change the food habits are some of the main reasons for not consuming small millets even if the nutrition benefits are known. Further among small millets, only finger millet is known widely and other small millets are known only in the cultivation regions. So large scale promotion efforts aimed at introducing small millets and changing their image among the common public is very much needed. Many of the earlier efforts have been limited in scale and sometimes elitist in approach. There are efforts to include millets to include in public food systems without taking efforts to change the current image of small millets among the public.

Walkathon focusing on small millets

Walkathon is an annual feature of DHAN Foundation. For every two years one socially relevant theme is chosen and Walkathon is organised around that theme. The event reaches out to thousands of people every year across a wide geographical area by involving them in “Walk for a Cause”. DHAN has organised Walkathon on February 2, 2013 on the theme of ‘Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security’, with a focus on small millets, with the aim of taking the message to few hundred thousands of public on the links between agricultural biodiversity and food security and on how promoting small millets consumption can address the twin goals of improving agricultural biodiversity and food security. The target group aimed was common public, with a special focus on students.

DHAN Foundation has organised a month long campaign to promote small millets ahead of Walkathon, through various events like recipe contest, orientation to school and college students, essay writing, drawing, quiz and elocution contests to the students on topics relevant to the theme of food security. The winners of these contests were appreciated on the day of Walkathon. A film festival was also organised as part of this event. Walkathon was organised in 26 places across the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha. The event involved rally of school students and farmers in the district head quarters followed by exhibition and seminar on the theme. Over 200,000 people including farmers, women and school students participated. Various stakeholders like National Biodiversity Authority, Agriculture department, Animal Husbandry department, Agricultural universities and KVKs participated in the event. Various public and private organisations supported the event by offering various types of sponsorship. Many promotional materials like booklets, pamphlets, posters, etc. were prepared in regional languages and distributed to large number of public.

Differently abled persons- Walkathon

What would be more gratifying that a group of differently abled walk for a social cause that too a 'health cause'. This event brings differently abled people of different age group walk a distance of 1 km to symbolize their support for the cause. Undoubtedly their plea has had tremendous response by way of support to the cause.

Building on RESMISA project:

The 2013 Walkathon derived inspiration from and was building on the action research project by name, ‘Revalorising Small Millets in Rainfed Regions of South Asia (RESMISA)’, anchored by DHAN Foundation in India. This project funded by Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) of IDRC and CIDA, aims to increase production and consumption of nutritious small millets and associated pulse and oil seed crops in rainfed regions of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The findings and insights from the project for the two years, especially on the nutritional features of small millets, products developed and promotional materials prepared like recipe booklets were extensively used in the Walkathon event across the states. This in turn resulted in preparation of booklets, recipe folders and posters on the theme of promotion of small millets in regional languages.

DHAN has prepared a booklet on agricultural biodiversity and small millets which covered the historic legacy of small millets, references in Sangam Tamil literature, link between agricultural biodiversity and food pattern, health benefits of small millets over rice and wheat, present status of production and roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in promotion.

Cherishing legacy of small millets

A booklet in Tamil titled “Palluyir Ombuvom (Let’s Protect Bio-Diversity – Relevance of Small Millets in Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security)” was published to educate the public. The booklet with illustrations describes the historic legacy of small millets, references in Sangam Tamil literature, link between agricultural biodiversity and food pattern of a region, role of small millets in Tamil cultural events, health benefits of small millets over rice and wheat, present status of production and roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in promotion. Recollecting the legacy of small millets, Ramasamy, a farmer from Tamil Nadu said “Today we are facing indebtedness mainly due to heavy borrowings for irrigated farming. Whereas the small millets can be raised without much expenses and can survive even with limited rainfall. Varagu (Kodo millet), which was our staple food earlier has become a prescribed food for sugar patients today. Those days we ate Varagu rice and worked for long hours in the field without fatigue. Today we are affected by many ailments and we have to run to hospitals all the time. We need to revive small millets in our foods”

Reviving heritage of food

The Walkathon event made an effort to raise peoples’ consciousness on the need for preserving traditional knowledge about medicinal and nutritional value of food, and the need to pass on that knowledge to the young generations. Given the diversity in soil type, climate and farming, food heritage of the communities in India varies significantly and influenced heavily by their religious and cultural choices. It was proved through variety of recipes brought by the participants in the recipe contests organised as part of this promotional campaign in all the places. Hundreds of people took part in the contests and displayed their culinary talents. One of those contestants presented a maximum of 40 delicious and mouth-watering recipes made out of small millets. Food festivals also helped the participants to taste a variety of recipes made of small millets. Recipe booklets and folders were distributed to the participants to help them try out small millet recipes in their homes. Tips and easy ways of introducing small millets in the daily menu were shared to the public.

Films to promote public engagement

Development Film Festival, another yearly feature of DHAN Foundation, was conducted along with Walkathon and its theme was Food Security and Climate Change. There was an overwhelming response from short feature and documentary filmmakers. A three-day Festival organised at Madurai, Tamil Nadu showcased films from different parts of the country, wherein a large number of younger viewers took part and debated on the food security and climate change issues portrayed in the films. Best films were awarded at the closing ceremony of Walkathon.

Involving media

The Walkathon event had a very clear media strategy for engaging both print and electronic media to build awareness and create public opinion on small millets across all the places. Through conferences, briefs and field visits, the Walkathon event created opportunities for the journalists to feature stories on the importance of reviving small millets in daily diet. They published stories and voices of the people advocating small millets. Media coverage details and photographs of Walkathon can be viewed at http://www.dhan.org/maduraiwalkathon/

Impact so far

The primary impact is that large number of public in the non-cultivating regions came to know that crops such as kodo millet (Varagu), barnyard millet (Kudiraivali), and proso millet (Panivaragu) exist and small millets are superior to commonly consumed cereals. In the cultivating regions the event has raised lot of nostalgia among the public as they used to consume these crops a decade back. There has been lot of enquiries about the source of seeds and ready to cook products of small millet crops in many of the Walkathon sites. As one of the main constituents of the public involved were members of various programmes of DHAN Foundation, action plans for further campaigns and recipe trainings, for introducing small millet crops by facilitating seed supply and for introducing consumption by facilitating linkages for sustained supply of ready to cook products like rice and grits were made and is being put into action. Further Walkathon helped in forging linkages with relevant stakeholders. The Walkathon event was found to be an apt activity to raise awareness on a large scale to enhance the consumption and to change the social status of small millets among the public. As DHAN Foundation has the institutional practice of organising Walkathon on the same theme for two years, next year also similar efforts will continue. It is planned to host in the coming year a number of promotional activities such as TV programs, films, newspaper columns, and information sessions for journalists, and to disseminate promotional material highlighting cultural, nutritional, environmental and other qualities of small millets. The campaign will also reach out to more number of schools and colleges. Educational materials prepared as part of RESMISA project would be disseminated widely.