Consuming more nutritious food is possible only with millets and this system is being protected by women farmers at Pastapur and other villages, noted assistant professor of Prof. Jayashankar State Agriculture University Janaki Srinath. He added that the knowledge gained by these farmers is much more compared to the knowledge gained at universities.
Mr Srinath was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the month-long biodiversity festival at Pastapur on Tuesday, and said that the society will always be indebted to the farmers for protecting and extending the tradition to the next generations.
The programme was organised the Deccan Development Society (DDS), an NGO based at Pastapur near Zaheerabad of Sangareddy district.
Assistant director-Agriculture Bhikshapati said that while the government has been pushing for alternative crops of late, the farmers here have been practicing it for the past three decades. He pointed out that many of the problems in society like malnutrition can be addressed with this system.
District Welfare Officer A. Padmavathi said the food grown by the women at DDS will improve the health of mother and child. She also appreciated the DDS for encouraging women in farming.
Mandal Parishad development officer K. Sujatha said that people are looking at millets as they offer better health than the present foods being consumed.
DDS co-director C. Jayasree said that for the past two decades, the bio-diversity festival is being held as a movement to create awareness among public. The festival is recognised at the national and international levels, and even the government is accepting the need for multi-cropping and millet cultivation to be followed by farmers, she stated.
As part of the programme, bullock carts were decorated and taken around the village in a rally. All the millet crops being grown by the farmers were exhibited in tiny boxes. At some places, the traditional system of offering prasadam to Mother Earth before harvesting the crop was also shown.
