Millet Mela - WAY
TO GOOD HEALTH
Date: 5th and 6th Feb 2011
Place: GANDHI BHAVAN near Shivananda Circle, Bangalore
A two day Millet mela brought together
35 millet growing groups from 11 states in India. The mela was
organised by Sahaja Samrudha in collaboration with UAS, Dharwad
and Pristine Organics. Conducting the mela would help spread
the work and also build market linkages to the effort. The focus
of this Mela was to sensitize the urban community towards the
benefits of millet consumption into our daily and create market
linkages for farmers producing these crops.
Minor are high energy, nutritious foods
comparable to any other cereals and some of them are even better
with regard to protein and mineral content. They are particularly
low in phytic acid and rich in dietary fibre, iron, calcium
and B vitamins. As the millets are consumed by the poor, they
guard them against food and nutritional insecurity imposed by
various agronomic, socio economic and political factors. Minor
millets can thus act as a shield against nutritional deficiency
disorders and provide nutritional security.
The mineral content of millet is really
nutritionally noteworthy. While calcium tablets are getting
sold like hot cakes, food based mineral sources like millets
are the right choice to resort to.
|
Millets
|
Calcium (mg/
100g)
|
Iron
(mg / 100 g)
|
Dietary Fiber
|
| Finger Millet (Ragi) |
344 |
3.9 |
18.8 |
| Little Millet (Samai) |
17 |
9.3 |
15.08 |
| Pearl Millet (Bajra) |
42 |
8.0 |
14.2 |
| Rice |
10 |
0.7 |
5.2 |
| Wheat |
41 |
5.3 |
12.9 |
Farmers presenting memorandum and
rare millet earheads to the Food minister |
Food minister honoring millet seed
savers |
Millet mela traditionally decorated
|
Millet Ready Food Diversity sold as value added |
Millets exhibition |
Millet Seed Saver |
Doctors and nutritionist awareing consumers about millets
and its health benefits |
Consumers curiously asking farmer about forgotten millets
|
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