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

34 minor millets in south asia
(Fig. 17). Apart from these, the SHGs in each location prepared a few special
products such as the products from flaked little millet in Jeypore and ready mixes
like semolina in Kolli Hills. Among these, malt and rice of little and Italian millets
were the fast moving products while chakli and laddu had the modest market.
6.4. Marketing
Marketing of value added products was done either
directly by the members of the same SHG which
produced the products or by another SHG which
undertook specialized task in packaging and marketing
the products. The members of SHG in Jeypore made
production and marketing by themselves, while the
two SHGs which produced products transferred the
bulk unpacked material to the third SHG in the plane
(proximal to the urban market) and the latter undertook
the packaging, labeling and marketing. This arrangement
improved the marketing efficiency and production
turn over. Right from the beginning of commercial
production, the SHGs in Kolli Hills and Jeypore marketed
the different products under specific brand names
(Figs. 17, 18). In short time, these SHGs learned the Fig. 18. packaging of trupti malt
advantage of brand building and need for maintaining
the product quality representing the brand.
A detailed cost:benefit analysis of value added product development was
conducted both at Kolli Hills and Jeypore. The results of this study are presented
in Table 5. These results showed that the highest net return was offered by the rice
of little and Italian millets (data only from Kolli Hills) and the next highest return
was from malt, laddu and chakli, while the lowest net return was from finger millet
flour (Fig. 19).
An assessment of the market potential of these products showed that there is good
demand for rice of little millet and Italian millet and malt. The low glycemic value
Table 5. Cost: benefit analysis of production and marketing of value added millet products
Cost: benefit particulars Laddu Chakli Malt LM Rice IM Rice FM Flour
Cost of production of 100 kg (inr) 4108 3401 4075 1300 1300 795
total return from 100 kg (inr) 5625 4600 6000 2500 2500 900
net return from 100 kg (inr) 1517 1199 1925 1200 1200 105
Profit as % of cost 37% 35% 47% 92% 92% 13%
labour man days generated for
production of one ton product
lm - little millet; im - italian millet; Fm - Finger millet
300 150 300 100 100 40