Minor millets in South Asia: learnings from IFAD-NUS project in India ...

30 minor millets in south asia
and INR 2,733 in the case of pure finger millet crop. In the case of little millet
and foxtail millet, the additional
income generated from improved
agronomic package of practices
were 53% and 40.8%, respectively.
In actual terms, the additional
average net income generated
by the improved practices in
the little millet-based intercrop
was INR 4,605/ha, while the
same in the foxtail millet-based
intercrop was INR 3,512/ha. In
terms of strengthening of food
security arising from increased
nutritious millet grain productivity
contributed by improved agronomic
Fig. 10. increased food security contributed by
improved agronomy
practices, it was 39% in the case of finger millet, 37% in the case of little millet and
31% in the case of foxtail millet (Fig. 10).
6. Development of value chains of nutritious millets
6.1. Reduction of drudgery in processing nutritious millet grains
Nutritious millets are neglected in all respects including technology development
for grain processing. There is no efficient technology for processing these grains
at village level, despite India producing about 2 million tons of these grains. Such
lack of technology has been forcing the dependence on traditional methods of grain
processing, which are tedious, time consuming and cause of drudgery for women.
This is another reason contributing to the decreasing popularity of these grains even
among people who had been its traditional consumers. Small millet grains differ in
their seed coat structure, particularly with
respect to the abrasive force required to
remove the seed coat. All except finger
millet are covered by tight and hard seed
coat, which require intense abrasive action
for removal. While finger millet could be
directly made to flour in a grinding mill,
other grains are to be first dehulled and then
polished to make them fit for consumption.
The traditional practice of making flour
from finger millet in villages is using
stone grinder, which is operated by two
women (Fig. 11). It requires manually
rotating the grinding stone for long time Fig. 11. Women grinding finger millet