HYDERABAD: B Dayakar Rao, CEO of Nutrihub, Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), has said that millets research has thrown up a variety of millets that look just like rice. Speaking to a group of visiting women entrepreneurs from FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) who were on a tour of IIMR, he said that millets were being altered into the shape of rice, to attract those averse to consuming millets into eating these food grains.
“Many people prefer eating rice. For such people, we can offer millet as rice, as they’ll look like rice. We will be introducing millets in the shape of rice so that their acceptability among the people increases,” he told the women entrepreneurs.“It is an initiative to earn more acceptability for the 3,000-year-old group of cereals. While reconstituting millets into rice, we can fortify them to address a particular nutritional demand for a particular set of consumers, and to increase the shelf-life and digestion,” he added.
India has been the largest producer of millets in the world, having 19 percent of the global area under millets cultivation being in India, and 20 percent of the global production, producing 11 out of 18 millets cultivated in 131 countries around the world. He said that millets could help prevent heart ailments, colon cancer, and type-2 diabetes, could aid in weight loss, and are gluten-free food which is good for pregnant and lactating mothers and prevents malnutrition in children.
He informed the visiting women that IIMR has been working in a mission mode to revive the demand for millets in India.“IIMR is also working towards breaking the stigma that millets are poor people’s food, by showcasing it as a superfood, combating misinformation, and reviving lost recipes, thus making it an essential part of the mainstream food basket,” said Tara Satyavathi, Director of ICAR-IIMR.
Ritu Shah, Chairperson of FLO said that millet is a good source of protein, fibre, key vitamins, and minerals, and this year being the International Year of Millets, FLO would like to explore business opportunities for its members in this space.