Small millets can address the nutritional issues

Bringing small millets into mainstream diet is the challenge ahead and stakeholders meeting can be held once in three months to ensure its increased production and consumption, an officials of DHAN Foundation, said today.
Focusing on consumption, cultivation, conservation and commerzialisation of small millets was crucial for having an intergrated approach in promoting them, M P Vasimalai, Executive Director of the foundation, said while addressing a National Consultative Workshop on "promotion of small millets", at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) here.
Setting up of effective mechanism for collaborating with various stakeholders, including the government and TNAU, was needed to achieve this, he said.

Dr Kirti Patel, professor, Canadian Mennonite University, Canada, said that five Canadian varsities were involved in the project apart from partners in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal to address the food and nutritional security needs of the people.
The production level of finger millet and Kodo millet was abysmally low, which can provide only 175 gram per individual per month in Tamil Nadu and the project has laid foundation for future course of action, he said.
Dr K Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor, TNAU, who inaugurated the workshop said producing nutri foods was the need of the hour and small millets have the potential to address the nutritional issues.

The two-day consultative workshop, in which more than 100 experts from associated fields participating, was jointly organised by TNAU, Dhan Foundation, Madurai, under the aegies of revalorising small millets in Rainfed region of South Asia Project, M Karthikeyan, Principal Investigator, said.
The project was initiated in 2011 in an effort to increase the cultivation, production, distribution and daily consumption of nutritious small millets and associated crops in rainfed regions of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, from the funding by Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, he said.