BENGALURU: In celebrating the International Year of Millets, the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) has gone all out in promoting the versatile grain. UAS has established a first-of-a-kind Millets Gallery, which was inaugurated on Thursday, showcasing the history, contributions and other information about millets for the benefit of farmers, students and other enthusiasts.
The gallery will act as an information centre for millets, highlighting UAS’ contributions towards research in millet, as well as information on the farming practices, cultivation and processing millets. The gallery, which is hosted in the UAS Agricultural Sciences Museum Complex, also showcases a wide variety of snacks made out of millet.
Meanwhile, UAS also announced the theme for the upcoming ‘National Millet Summit 2023’ which will take place on March 4 and 5, which is ‘Millets: Science, Technology & Innovation’. The summit, which is jointly being organised by the UAS and National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur (NIFTEM-T), will be inaugurated by state Agriculture Minister BC Patil.
The summit will focus on nurturing and developing startups in the field of millet farming, as well as encouraging entrepreneurs, promoting novel and niche products, nutrition interventions, skill promotion and awareness on market strategies. Over 200 stalls from government departments, academic institutions, NGOs, self-help groups, and private companies will be set up. The summit will also include eight technical sessions on various topics such as government schemes, recent trends, technologies for value addition and others aimed at farmers and entrepreneurs.