Event 6
Capacity Building on Small Millets based Value Added Food Products at Raipur, Chhattisgarh
DHAN Foundation has organised a two days training programme on small millets based value added food products at Indira Gandhi Krishi Viswhavidyalaya (IGKV), Raipur on 24th and 25th October, 2017 as part of Scaling Up Small Millet Post-harvest and Nutritious Food Products Project with the funding support of IDRC and Global Affairs Canada under CIFSRF. This training was organized to disseminate and scale up the small millet based value added food products developed by DHAN Foundation since 2011 in collaboration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) to the Central Indian States. In the training, 47 participants from 15 organizations namely, KVKs, IGKV, PRERAK, ESAF, READS, Abhivyakti Foundation, PRAVAH, NIRMAAN, Basna Farmer Producer Company Ltd, Balud Farmer Producer Company Ltd, Krishikiran mahasamuh, Drishtee Foundation, State Rural Livelihood Mission, Ajeevika and DES participated.
Mr. Bijaya Kumar Nayak, Regional Coordinator-Small millets, DHAN Foundation, welcomed all the participants from different organizations, officials from State Rural Livelihood Mission and individual farmers. He shared about the objectives of the training programme and gave a glimpse of various interventions taken by DHAN Foundation on cultivation, processing, value addition, promotion, marketing and policy advocacy related to small millets to promote consumption of small millets across the country. Dr. MP Thakur, Director of Extension, IGKV inaugurated the training programme and shared about the importance of promotion of small millets and different initiatives undertaken by IGKV with Government of Chhattisgarh. He stressed the need for technology development, collaboration of different stakeholders and large scale promotion. He expressed keen interest for collaboration with DHAN Foundation for working on small millets promotion. Dr. K. K. Sahu, PRO, IGKV highlighted about the benefits of the small millet value added food products and the changing scenario of food industry focusing on organic food products. Pointing the favourable market situation, he stressed the need for developing value added food products of small millets and policy level interventions for minimum support price (MSP) and subsidy for the small millet growers by the Government of Chhattisgarh.
Dr. D. Malathi, Ph.D., Professor (Food Science Nutrition), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, acted as a resource person. She explored with the participants about the local recipes and food system for designing two days practical demonstration. She and her team demonstrated preparation of both modern and traditional small millet based value added food products includingAdai, Khichdi, Paisam, Pakoda, Noodles, Biscuit, Cake, Instant Mix, Tomato Rice, Biriyani Mix, Health Mix, Pongal, and Paniyaram.The training catered to the needs of organisations, which were interested to promote consumption of small millets through skill building at the family level and for those entities which wanted to take it as a business. The training was well received by the participants. Mr. Saravaran, Team Leader, DHAN Foundation gave concluding remarks as well as way forward for building on the learning from the training towards action by the participants.
