VIRUDHUNAGAR: In a bid to promote millet use, millet-based snacks and lunches have been served at government meetings and functions in the district since last year. According to the sources from the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agribusiness, 195 entrepreneurs have begun the process of starting new businesses of value addition in millets and allied products. Among these, 47 mini-processing units have started manufacturing value-added products of millets such as cookies and ready-to-cook food materials such as dosa mix and chappathi mix among others.
Millets are cultivated in an area of around 15,000 hectares (excluding maize) in the district, producing around 30,000 tonnes of grains annually. After domestic consumption, there is a market surplus of 21,000 tonnes, said sources. Among several other initiatives, the department has also created facilities for processing, grading, and value addition at the cluster level for getting escalated prices on value-added products.
Speaking to TNIE, G Padmavathi, Joint Director (i/c), Department of Agriculture, said snacks such as ragi halwa, millet cookies and millet biryani among others are being provided in government meetings. "While these initiatives create awareness, it also benefits entrepreneurs as they can sell their products in large quantities," she said.
M Dhanasekaran, a former assistant professor from Valayankulam village resigned from his job and started manufacturing millet cookies under the brand Milletonia at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic with the help of subsidies from the government. "The cookies are supplied in different quantities ranging from 500 to 1,000 for government meetings. Apart from selling cookies in the shop, supplying cookies to these meetings has benefitted me as the order comes frequently," he said.