Tamil Nadu: Farmers help millet make a comeback

DW (English)

It’s nutritious, climate-resilient, good for soil health and requires minimal water - millet is in growing demand after long being neglected in favor of wheat and rice. In Tamil Nadu, farmers are now reviving this forgotten crop.

Transcript

00:00Ice cream, a tasty combination of dairy and sugar. But not this one. This one is made

00:09from millets. Millets are the grandfathers of modern day crops like wheat and corn. They

00:15are very diverse. This is barnyard millet, red grade sorghum millet, foxtail millet

00:26and this is kodo millet, which is mostly farmed in this region.

00:33In the last 40 years, millets have really reduced.

00:38And in this region, cotton and maize crops have completely taken over

00:43and made the farmers rely heavily on the market.

00:45From seed to sale, the farmers rely heavily on the market.

00:52Farmer Saravanan Karunanidhi wants to change this and bring millets back. Not only can they be

00:58more reliable crops over the long term, but millets are also better for the soil,

01:03use less water and are more nutritious overall. He started a cooperative called Namalwar Organic

01:10Millet Farmers Producer Organisation to support those that believe in the message

01:14and want to make the transition. Our motto is that all the farmers should switch to millet

01:20farming and nutritious food should reach people. So initially, we asked seven farmers to implement

01:25millet farming in five and a half acres. Today, we are doing it in 100 acres. At first, we used

01:32to organise meetings at various villages to create awareness. But today, the farmers are

01:37volunteering themselves. We visited a farm in the process of transition with Saravanan. This farm,

01:45like many others, had great yields of cash crops when the rain was good, but suffered when it

01:51wasn't. As rains get more erratic, the farmer Banumathi wanted to change to something more

01:57stable, even if that meant no bounties in good years. This is Irungu corn. We have farmed it in

02:05this entire field. We can use this as a daily food as it is very nutritious. Also, we are feeding the

02:12cow which yields more milk. When we harvest, we also grind the corn. We can prepare rice, upma, pongal

02:21and all varieties of food. Everyone can eat it, young and old, and it's healthy for everyone.

02:29This time, we ground out millets and made Diwali sweets and snacks like murukku and laddu all by

02:36ourselves. Banumathi and other women farmers work together and sell their products directly to the

02:49cooperative, who then package it and sell it to final consumers in various cities. They are seeing

02:55success as millets are becoming more popular in urban areas. Since we work, it is quite hard for

03:06us to process and prepare healthy foods for the kids, but these kind of millet flowers makes

03:12breakfast much easier and give us the satisfaction of feeding healthy foods to our children.

03:17Many customers said they are willing to pay a premium for this grain. The UN declared 2023 the

03:27year of the millet, but there is a long way to go before they can prove to be economically stable

03:32for farmers. They still do not compare to bounty cash crops, which can earn a farmer four times

03:37more in a year, but it's the other benefits that has some farmers hooked.

03:42Millets are considered to be climate resilient crops, and they hold an important place in long-term

03:52food security, according to UNO and other organizations. So, millets are capable of

03:58fulfilling the food demand and supply issues long-term. And since it is a food enriched

04:05with nutrients, it can help to eradicate nutritional deficiencies in people.

04:12Farmers are ready to do millet farming if they get good support from the government.

04:22Farmers in the region are going back to traditional ways to deal with the future.

04:26If this works out, millets will make a comeback. Farmers will likely have more

04:31reliable crops, and consumers will have a better chance at eating and staying healthy.

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