Kunuthuru: Training in Millet recipes concludes

Kunuthuru(Sri Sathya Sai district): A four-day training programme organised for hotel owners and cooks in Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai districts was concluded with 165 persons actively participating in it.

Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre (AFEC) held the concluding training at Kunuthuru village of Dharmavaram mandal, where 35 Sasya Mitra Group members and outsiders from Dharmavaram and Rapthadu mandals learnt cooking tricks through hands-on experience. A demonstration on cooking millet idli was also held.

The AFEC has been promoting millets cultivation in eight mandals of the district for the past 20 years and in the Year of Millets - 2023, it has taken a step forward to train hotel owners and cooks in villages to include at least one millet dish in breakfast or meals they offer to their customers.

Many roadside tiffin outlets are venturing into millet foods including millet Idlis, taking advantage of the general awareness people have on millet-based foods. People are not hesitating to go for millet idlis although their price is higher than those normal ones. In this, context, AFEC giving training to hoteliers gained importance.

The training was held simultaneously in three centres including Vaddi Palli, Venkatadripalli and Lakshmampalli in Anantapur district.

AF Ecology Centre Alternative Livelihoods Project Coordinator Hakim Rizwana conducted the programme. Others, who attended cooking training at Kunuthuru included AFEC Community Based Organisations Associate Priyanka and mandal team leader Dastagiri.

The cost of millets cultivation per acre is much cheaper compared to paddy and wheat and the yield will be at least 50% higher, according to agriculture research station scientists. AF Ecology Centre Alternative Livelihood Project Coordinator Hakim Rizwana said both the Centre and State governments have included millets in PDS supply system, which had enormously increased the market value of all the millets, which are traditionally grown without the use of chemicals or pesticides.

Professional trainers from Krishi Vignan Kendra Banaganapalli (Nandyal district) - Bandi Rajeswari and Battala Lakshmi Devi - began training 30 members of Sasya Mitra Groups (SMG Self Help Groups) and outsiders, in making millet breakfast, lunch and snacks, said Hakim

Rizwana.