Karnataka taps chefs to promote millet recipes, boost consumption

State to offer subsidised seeds, assured market & bonus in addition MSP in order to promote millets

Karnataka is tapping top chefs from five-star hotels of the Taj group and ITC to come up with recipes using millet, a cereal that it wants to promote among consumers.

The state, facing its worst drought in four decades, wants to encourage people to shift from water-intensive crops to millet. For this, it is promoting consumption that would encourage farmers to grow the crop. Bengaluru, the state capital, has emerged as the largest market for organic and millet food in the country.

"We are looking at everything from pastas, to bread, to pizzas, using millet. We want to promote millet as an ingredient that can be used to make traditional as well as international cuisines,” says Krishna Byre Gowda, the state's minister of Agriculture. "Millet is very good for various lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. However, people need to be shown various ways to cook it so that the usage increases.”

The state, which has seen lower rainfall over the years, is encouraging famers to go back their traditional practice of growing millets and shifting away from paddy, which is a water-consuming crop. The government says that a large-scale shift to millet cultivation by farmers requires a stable market for their produce.

“We will do our best in any way possible and ensure sourcing for companies. We want companies to come out with more products made out of millet and market it more. Promote millet bread and create a market for it as you did for multi-grain bread," says  Gowda.  

Karnataka was seeing a reduction of area under ragi, jowar and other millets. Since 2014, the state has encouraged increase in production of millets by offering subsidised seeds, assured market and bonus in addition to the minimum support price to cover over two million hectares.

In addition, it is promoting organic cultivation - converting over 180,000 hectares of farm land to shift from practices such as using chemical fertilisers to organic farming. This has yielded results, and the state currently has over 550 organic clusters involving about 100,000 farmers.

While Bengaluru, thee capital city, has emerged as the country's largest market for organic produce, the state has seen Rs 2,000 crore worth of organic exports last year.

The government is further working with Indian Institute of Millet Research for more uses of the grain.

“Millet come in various varieties. There is a problem that once cold, they do not have the same taste. The research institute is working on ways to overcome this problem,” he said.