Last-mile cooking training to include millets on every plate

Vaddipalli (Anantapur district): Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (AFEC), has decided to train hotel owners and cooks in villages to include at least one millet in the meals they offer to their customers, in the Year of Millets - 2023. AFEC has been promoting millets cultivation in eight mandals of Anantapur district for the past 20 years.

Agriculture Research Station Principal Scientist Chagam Venkata Chandramohan Reddy explained nutritional benefits of millets and wanted every woman entrepreneur to understand benefit of providing healthy food to their customers at affordable price. He has been working on millets alone for the past 16 years in Kurnool and Anantapur districts. He said that cost of millets cultivation per acre is much cheaper and yield is at least 50% higher compared to paddy and wheat. He thanked both Centre and State governments for including millets in PDS system, which had enormously increased the market value of all millets. The only gap was better marketing of the millets and creating a demand for these crops like it was done for paddy during ‘Green Revolution’. Chandramohan interacted with women hotel owners preparing several dishes with millets and gave some tips at Vaddi Palli RDT School.

Recently, the AF Ecology Centre inaugurated a 4-day training programme for more than 120 hotel owners and cooks to make them learn how to cook the locally available millets. Professional Trainers from Krishi Vignan Kendra Banaganapalli (Nandyal District) - Bandi Rajeswari and Battala Lakshmi Devi began training 30 members of Sasya Mitra Groups (SMG Self Help Groups), in making millet breakfast, lunch and snacks. The first training programme was held at Vaddi Palli for women entrepreneurs from Atmakur and Kuderu Mandals, on September 14 training was given to women from Belguppa and Kalyandurg Mandals at Venkatampalli village, on September 15 at Lakshmampalli.