Category Archives: NFB

A survey carried out in the finger millet (ragi)-growing Koraput district of Odisha, India, showed a large unmet demand for value-added millet products owing to absence of millet processing units in the area. ICRISAT’s Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) took this as an opportunity to propose the establishment of millet processing units to create new entrepreneurial avenues for the predominantly tribal communities in the area, especially for women and youth.

The survey showed: a) Finger millet is the most commonly cultivated and consumed millet in Koraput district, b) Local processing is limited to household-level dehusking/cleaning and at the most, grinding to a flour, c) The whole grain is more commonly marketed, with limited value adding due to the lack of processing infrastructure, d) Though consumers have high preference for millet-based products, they have limited access to value-added products such as millet flakes or millet-based Ready-to-cook (RTC) or Ready-to-eat (RTE) products.

With support from the Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM), AIP is aiming to strengthen the millet value chains in the state to improve rural livelihoods by establishing millet processing units that can in turn foster sustainable local entrepreneurship and promote health and nutrition of the local communities.

These processing units licensed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) will have efficient processing equipment (RTC dry mix processing line and a bakery line) to enable localized production of “Nutri-Food products”. AIP-ICRISAT’s first unit is being established in the Semiliguda block of Koraput district. Similar millet processing units are being planned for other millet-growing districts of the state.

Ms Susmita Samantaray, District Project Manager (DPM), OLM, Koraput, said, “High nutritional value is hidden in millets, especially finger millet grown in the tribal areas of Koraput. To attract the younger generations to continue growing finger millet and other millets, this initiative of OLM to strengthen the finger millet value chain in Koraput is a very significant initiative.”

AIP’s first-hand experience with similar interventions in southern India has shown that local enterprises are effective forces of change as they work hand-in-hand with public sector agencies to organize and channel resources to smallholder farmers. In the best of cases, local enterprises have proven to shape the trajectory of an entire industry. With some creative thinking, collaborative partnerships and a great deal of hard work, better livelihood opportunities can be a reality for thousands of beneficiaries in the target districts of Odisha. Thus, the proposed intervention is aimed at enhancing the sustainability and resilience of tribal households to: realize optimum price for their produce without the compulsion of selling immediately at meager rates, enhanced income through access to technology value adding and market linkages.

In addition, a capacity building program “Nutrition and value addition to Ragi (Finger Millet) grown in Koraput” was conducted by AIP-ICRISAT on 8 October 2021 for 35 members of the local “Viswa Durgeswar” self-help group from Rajput gram panchayat. These members will be involved in managing and operating the processing unit being established at Koraput.

“This is the first of a series of trainings to be conducted as part of the OLM-funded initiative to enhance tribal farmers’ incomes by establishing small business enterprises and linking them to markets,” said Dr Saikat Datta Mazumdar, COO, NutriPlus Knowledge Program. He also highlighted that ICRISAT is recognized by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, as a Center of Excellence for Tribal Development.

The training program focused on following aspects: Importance of nutrition and dietary diversity; concept and principles of health, hygiene and food safety; value addition to ragi through product development and local processing; details on plan and layout of the ragi processing unit being established by AIP-ICRISAT at Koraput; key aspects of processing of ragi-based food products and FSSAI regulations; nutritional quality and marketing aspects of ragi-based food products.

The trainees learned about the nutritional importance of ragi-based products such as upma mix, khichdi mix, sweet mix, malt powder, idli mix, dosa mix and cookies developed by NutriPlus Knowledge Program of AIP- ICRISAT. The program also included a demonstration of RTC food products, followed by a tasting. All participants were provided detailed training manuals on the above aspects and hands-on training on preparation of the products as per the FSSAI protocols. Feedback from the group was positive, including that from mothers who appreciated the health benefits and convenience of cooking of the ragi-based RTC products.

Ms Priyanka Durgalla, Senior Scientific Officer, and Mr Harshvardhan Mane, Officer-Partnership Development, from ICRISAT, conducted the training program. The district project team of Dr Aviraj Datta, District Project Coordinator, Koraput; Ms Sucharita, Scientific Officer, ICRISAT; Mr Manoj Kumar Lima, Research Technician, ICRISAT; OLM officials Mrs Mansi Batra, Ms Bindya Guntha, MBK, Rajput; Mr Divyendu (YP), Mr Amit, Mr Karunakar, BPM, Semiliguda; Mr Pradip Kumar Mishra and his team from Foundation for Ecological Security (FES); Mr Abhisek Pradhan, Scientific Officer, AVRDC, participated actively in the program.

Project: Sustainable improvement of rural livelihood and restoration of coconut-based livelihood through specific science-based interventions
Component 7: Establishment of FSSAI licensed Food Processing Unit to foster localized value addition of local produce leading to local Entrepreneurship
Partners: Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Odisha
Funder: Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM)
CGIAR Research Program: Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC)

This article was featured in ICRISAT Happenings #1931

Ms Satyavathi Rathod, Minister for Scheduled Tribes, Women and Child Welfare of India’s Telangana state, recently inaugurated a moringa (drumstick) processing unit in the state’s Khammam district and a dry mix (ready-to-cook foods) unit in Bhadrachalam. Both the units are wholly owned by tribal women, who were trained in food processing and entrepreneurship at ICRISAT. Sri Lakshmi Ganapathy Dry Mix Unit will supply ready-to-cook Jowar meal (Upma mix) and ready-to-cook multigrain meal (Khichidi mix) to government nutrition programs and anganwadis in the tribal region. Sri Rama Moringa Processing Industry will sell moringa powder in markets.

“The food products being produced in these units have very good nutritive values. Both children and adults can consume them. These will be supplied to children in schools, ashram schools and anganwadi^* centres to keep them healthy and help them grow. Plus, the units are providing employment to tribal women,” the minister said during the inauguration.

ICRISAT’s Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) established the unit in collaboration with partners and has implemented two other programs as part of the collaboration – Nutri-Food Basket program (March 2017) and Giri Poshana (September 2018). The collaboration aims to transform tribal women into entrepreneurs, localize production and address malnutrition. Accordingly, 80 tribal women farmers from Bhadrachalam, Utnoor and Eturnagaram in Telangana were trained by ICRISAT in Hyderabad. After training, ICRISAT helped the women form Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) to manage the food processing units. With the latest opening, four food processing units of this type have been opened in Telangana.

The women will produce hygienically packed, safe and nutritious foods in the units, which are designed and equipped with machinery as per guidelines of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The food products will be sold under the Girijan Co-operative Corporation (GCC) brand as well as in the open market.

“ICRISAT cherishes the successful partnership with the Department of Tribal Welfare in this significant move towards women empowerment. This project has leveraged locally available nutritious dryland crops to support the economic independence of tribal women while ensuring means of nutrition for their communities,” said Dr Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT.

The project brings together key aspects of ICRISAT’s mandate: nutrition, food safety, sustaining small businesses and gender equity. Turning dryland crops that are locally available and consumed into healthy smart food products helps promote dietary diversity, address malnutrition and create sustainable livelihoods. The project also spurs creation of local value chains that are key to making vulnerable communities sustainable, especially post COVID-19. To continue empowering Telangana’s tribal communities, more food processing units will be established and the communities will be supported to run them.

“The ready-to-cook Jowar (sorghum) meal (Upma mix) and ready-to-cook multigrain meal (Khichidi mix) made in the dry mix unit provide balanced nutrition and energy through local nutritious crops such as millets and pulses. The ready-to-cook format is convenient for cooking in anganwadis and homes, and the foods have been an emergency ration during COVID-19 lockdown,” Dr Saikat Datta Majumdar, Chief Operating Officer, NutriPlus Knowledge (NPK) Program, ICRISAT.”

“Equipped with state-of-the-art leaf cleaning, drying and packing equipment, the moringa powder processing unit will produce high quality powder from moringa leaves grown by the tribal community without fertilizers or pesticides. The moringa powder will be marketed as a health supplement. Moringa is said to provide as much as seven times the vitamin C in orange, 10 times the vitamin A in carrot, 17 times the calcium in milk besides being a rich source of potassium, iron and protein. The unit will thus provide substantial value addition to locally grown moringa and bring additional income for farmers in the area,” he added.

Project: Setting up of eight processing units in ITDAs of Utnoor, Eturnagaram and Bhadrachalam through Joint Liability Groups (JLs) of Telangana.
Partners: Integrated Tribal Development Agencies, Tribal Women-led Joint Liability Groups, Girijan Cooperative Society, Anganwadis (Ministry of Women and Child Development) and ICRISAT
Funders: Department of Tribal Welfare, Government of Telangana
CGIAR Research Program: Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (GLDC)

This article was featured in ICRISAT Happenings #1892

Mr Allola Indrakaran Reddy, Minister for Endowment, Law, Forest and Environment, Telangana, inaugurated a tribal women-run food processing unit in Utnoor on 2 November. The Komaram Bheem Peanut Chikki Industries that the minister opened is wholly owned by first generation tribal entrepreneurs. The unit will supply to government nutrition programs and anganwadis in the tribal region.

This food processing unit is part of a successful collaboration between the Tribal Cooperative Finance Corporation Limited (TRICOR), Tribal Welfare Department of Telangana State, Government of India’s Ministry of Tribal Affairs and ICRISAT’s Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP). This collaboration aims to localize production and address malnutrition, besides improving economic conditions of tribal communities.

“I am delighted to inaugurate the Komaram Bheem Peanut Chikki Industries in Utnoor today. This unit is a testament to Telangana government’s commitment to development and welfare of tribal populations in the state. That the unit is owned and run by women is another reason for celebration,” the minister said.

Mr. Indrakaran Reddy and Ms. Ajmera Rekha inaugurate the unit.

The food processing unit is designed and equipped with machinery as per Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) guidelines. It will ensure production of nutritious food products meeting national and international market standards. ICRISAT has trained 80 tribal women farmers from Utnoor, Eturnagaram and Bhadrachalam in Telangana to manage food processing units that are being set up in these blocks.

The training covered food safety management systems, machine operations and maintenance, and quality control. The women will produce hygienically packed, safe and nutritious foods for their communities. ICRISAT has enabled the women to form Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) to manage the food processing units.

“This is a great example of the values that form the basis of ICRISAT’s work – empowering women and the less privileged. Such success is only possible through partnership, and working with the Department of Tribal Welfare has been a wonderful opportunity and their leadership is greatly appreciated,” said Dr Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes, Director General, ICRISAT.

This project brings together key aspects of ICRISAT’s mandate: nutrition, food safety, sustainable small businesses and gender equity. The project has leveraged locally available dryland crops to create healthy value-added Smart Food products that promote dietary diversity and in the long run address malnutrition in vulnerable communities.

“ICRISAT will continue to support the project towards sustainably scaling up this unique initiative to promote economic independence of tribal women and ensuring the nutritional security of their communities,” said Dr Kiran K Sharma, Deputy Director General-Research, ICRISAT.

The project trains tribal women to be “Nutrition Entrepreneurs” and is critical to ensure evolution of local value chains around local food production and consumption to make vulnerable tribal communities sustainable, especially post COVID-19. Going forward, this initiative will empower tribal communities by establishing more units and build their capacity to run the units in a sustainable manner, contributing towards not only health and nutrition, but sustainable livelihoods as well.

Enthused by positive nutritional outcomes among children and women in its first phase, activities of the Giri Poshana diet diversification program in Telangana, India, are set to be scaled up to benefit more of the state’s tribal population. Two years after it began, the Government of Telangana and ICRISAT’s Giri Poshana diet diversification program has shown how scientifically prepared traditional foods using millets, sorghum and pulses can significantly improve key nutritional parameters among children and women.

A recently initiated end-line survey concluded the first phase of the intervention in Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) of Bhadrachalam and Eturnagaram.

Before start of the program, a baseline survey showed that a quarter of the children in the surveyed group were stunted and wasted while a similar number of pregnant women were anemic.

To promote dietary diversity and ultimately improve nutritional outcomes, ICRISAT designed and implemented the diet intervention program by providing a combination of ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals to 7,400 children and women attending 416 Anganwadi centers (childcare centers in rural India where mothers are also involved) in the three ITDA areas. The meals include multigrain meal, sorghum (jowar) meal, multigrain sweet meal, nutri-cookies, energy bar and Jowar Bytes (a sorghum snack).

The supplemental food that was introduced in Telangana to combat malnutrition. Photo: ICRISAT

Dr Saikat Datta Mazumdar, Chief Operations Officer, NutriPlus Knowledge (NPK) Program, which is a part of ICRISAT’s Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP), stated, “We found that children aged 3 to 6 in the target group were improving their wasting (low weight-for-age) and stunting (low height-for-age) scores. The percentage of mildly anemic pregnant women was also reduced significantly. This was observed during a midline survey of the project beneficiaries in January this year.”

“I was unable to go to the Anganwadi center or the market due to the lockdown. So, we got the Giri Poshana food as take-home ration. Every day, I serve the food to my children. It is nutritious and keeps them healthy,” said Ms Sudi Gowthami, mother of a Giri Poshana beneficiary from Bhadrachalam.

After COVID-19 hit and lockdown began, the ready-to-cook foods were replaced with ready-to-eat foods (ragi jaggery cookies, peanut fried gram chikki and millet flakes mixture) in order to continue the feeding program.

“Children are having holidays due to the pandemic. Ravva (semolina), sweet meal and peanut chikki was delivered to our homes directly. Our children are healthy and gaining weight,” said Ms Choulam Ramadhevi, a mother of beneficiary children in Kannaigudem village.

Ms Ramadevi, a pregnant woman in Allapally block who used to attend the Raipadu Anganwadi center, said that the nutritious food has helped remain healthy during pregnancy. “There are six types of food viz. khichidi (porridge), sweet meal, peanut chikki, jowar kukure (crisps) and multigrain cookies. I gained weight and health by eating them. Cooking instructions for each type were explained by the Anganwadi teacher,” she said.

Foods for the intervention were developed based on consumption and cooking preferences, ease of production, ease of handling and distribution especially in emergency/pandemic situations. The need for products with enhanced shelf lives in remote tribal locations and availability of crops locally to ensure that the tribal communities are self-reliant in producing these foods also guided the development of the meals.

With the intervention showing improvement in dietary diversity and nutritional outcomes among tribal children and women, the Department of Tribal Welfare, Government of Telangana, and ICRISAT have now planned to scale up the intervention to cover additional populations in the ITDA areas. ICRISAT is also operationalizing eight food processing units to be run as sustainable business enterprises by tribal women-led collectives in the ITDAs to locally produce and supply these nutritious foods as part of its scale-up strategy.

For more on our work in the area of nutrition, click here.

This article was first published in ICRISAT Happenings October 23, 2020.

An Anganwadi teacher providing Giri Poshana food to beneficiaries at their homes in Sarvai Village, Eturunagaram, Telangana

To ensure nutrition sufficiency in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers of tribal communities in Telangana, India, during times of lockdown, ready-to-eat foods containing millets, sorghum and pulses produced by ICRISAT are being provided at their doorstep.

“The food products are scientifically formulated to promote dietary diversity and are produced using locally available nutritious millets and protein rich pulses. These foods are also rich sources of dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, and bioactives beneficial for boosting immunity and keeping the tribal population healthy,” said Dr Saikat Datta Mazumdar, Chief Operating Officer of the NutriPlus Knowledge (NPK) Program at ICRISAT’s Agribusiness Innovation Platform.

The foods are distributed under Giri Poshana, an initiative in which ICRISAT and Tribal Welfare Department of Telangana State have been collaborating to improve dietary diversity and nutritional status of tribal populations. The initiative targets beneficiaries in three Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) of Utnoor (Adilabad district), Eturnagaram (Jayshankar Bhupalpally district) and Bhadrachalam (Bhadradri Kothagudem district) of Telangana.

The local farmers are also benefited as they now have demand for their crops, he added.

The initiative, which began in 2019, was being implemented through select Anganwadi centers (community centers for education, health and other purposes) in the ITDAs. The beneficiaries were being provided three ready-to-cook and three ready-to-eat products as supplementary food, served as breakfast and evening snack, in addition to the governments ICDS mid-day meals. However, after COVID hit and lockdown was imposed, the Anganwadi centers closed and nutrition of the beneficiaries became a matter of concern until the program team worked to change the model of implementation.

“The team has explored different ready-to-eat products from dryland crops, which can replace the ready-to-cook products so that the beneficiaries can easily consume at their households without the need for much cooking. While identifying the products, it was ensured that nutritional values of the new food products are similar to the ready-to-cook products, which have been temporarily discontinued during lockdown,” Dr Mazumdar explained.

Accordingly, millet flakes mixture, peanut – fried gram chikki (energy bar) and ragi (finger millet)-jaggery cookies were added to three other ready-to-eat foods – Energy (Peanut) bar, Nutri-Cookies and Jowar bytes. In April and May, 2020, 7421 beneficiaries received Giri Poshana food, which is being distributed by Anganwadi teachers at the doorsteps of beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries and the teachers are also being sensitized about nutrition and hygiene through instructional videos and brochures. “They are eating on time and are eating healthy food. In the lockdown, it was difficult for us to go to the market and buy food. Also, children liked eating this food and as a mother it is assuring,” Ms Sudi Gowthami, a mother of a beneficiary child in Bhadrachalam, said.

Further, eight food processing units in ITDA areas managed by tribal women-led Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), will soon become operational to produce nutritious convenience foods using locally grown crops. This move is also set to boost local employment while ensuring healthy food supply. The construction of these units has been nearly completed in all the three ITDA locations and a few of them have commenced dry runs.

Pointing to capacity building of 75 tribal women to be “Nutrition Entrepreneurs”, Dr Mazumdar argues for urgent evolution of local value chains around local food production, local value addition and local consumption to make vulnerable tribal communities sustainable post-COVID. Post restrictions when the threat from virus is better manageable, tribal women, with their newly acquired skillsets in the areas of food processing, food safety and business development, would be ready to start their enterprises and promote local dryland crops while contributing to building of healthier tribal communities, he added.