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(GIST OF YOJANA) Start Up’s Making Millets Popular

(January-2023)

Till some years ago, coarse grains like Jowar, Bajra, and Ragi were often looked down people used to consume coarse grains. Economic prosperity further led to a decline in the consumption of coarse grains. But recent scientific researches suggest that coarse grains are far more nutritious. They have more protein, fibre, vitamins, calcium, iron, etc. Secondly, they are also glutenfree. Gluten is a type of protein that is believed to be responsible for weight gain. Thanks to such information, awareness about the consumption of coarse grains has increased again.

According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), more than a thousand startups are working on coarse grains in the country. Some of these have become fully functional, and some are in the process of launching their products in the market.
ICAR’s Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) aims to make these entrepreneurs successful by introducing their brands in the market keeping in mind the International Year of Millets.
IIMR has set up a technology incubator NutriHub with the help of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to promote millets. NutriHub trains people for startups. Along with this, startups are also provided with the facility to develop their products and assess their quality.
The Union government in 2022 announced the “Millet Challenge” for startups, with a seed grant of Rs 1 crore each to three winners to design and develop innovative solutions for and across the millet’s value chain.
Many states have included Millet in the National Nutrition Mission and Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Many startups are contributing towards the millets.

The Government is also enabling startups for the export promotion of value-added products like noodles, pasta, breakfast-cereal mix, biscuits, cookies, snacks, and sweets in the Ready to Eat (RTE) and Ready to Serve (RTS) categories.

Most of the startups procure coarse grains directly from farmers. After processing them, they prepare products and sell them online and offline.
This has resulted in an increase of the production of coarse grains.
This will also lead to better nutritional security, Atmanirbhar Bharat, women participation, scope of value addition, employment generation, startup environment, and climate resilience.
For Instance, An Agri startup from Tamil Nadu is directly procuring produce from 13000 farmers in 10 states. Their mission is to promote natural food grains. The company’s theme is Farm to Fork, i.e., from the farm to the dining table.