Millets have literally been Bhalubhau Kisan Ghode's life. On five acres of his rented property, the 45-year-old tribal farmer from the Jahagirdarwadi hamlet in the Akole taluka of Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district plants seven distinct types of millets. He has travelled far and wide to gather different sorts of millets.
Ghode is in favour of developing a value chain through which millets could be popularised throughout the world.
Mainly throughout the monsoon season, tourists from Mumbai and Pune visit this village of around 400, including Mahadev Koli and tribal families. Tourist homestay facilities are run by these tribal facilities. The primary crop in the rocky area is rice, which is planted over reclaimed land, while millet, the traditional grain, is primarily farmed for food.
Ghode got introduced to millets at the age of 14 that too quite accidently. At that time paddy had taken place of millets, which almost got vanished from the village. "My father used to feed our draught animals finger millets (often referred to as Nanchni) during the monsoon to aid them in navigating the difficult terrains. Also, this served as a staple food for farm labourers who had to work in the mud and torrential rain. Ghode became more interested in finger millets when he learned that they had the potential to maintain the well-being of both the livestock and the workers.
The tribal village mainly relies on little millet (also known as Varai) as their staple food, and Ghode naturally shifted his focus towards them. The main issues faced by Ghode was the unavailability of seeds and the technology to grow them.
Only a few of the village's farmers used the seeds at that point, which inspired him to start working in conservation. To introduce the metropolitan audience to what is now known as Shri Anna, Ghode made the unusual decision to give his visitors millets rather than wheat roti, in contrast to other tour guides in his area. Ghode claimed that millets are considerably more resilient than, for example, highly-bred, high-yielding paddy.
"Thus, we presented kheer made from barnyard millet or little millet as a dessert and ambil, a liquid concoction of finger millet, as a welcome drink. My visitors always made it a point to get some for their families after they left because they loved it so much. "Word of mouth is the best publicity, and I have noticed an increase in millet demand over the past several years," he said.
Following his efforts, many farmers in the village now dedicate part of their holding to grow millets.
Ghode moved his focus to the input side because Kalsubai's presence and the consistent influx of tourists provided him with an established market. He travelled widely in his search for millets and came across many of the once-common millet varieties that are now in danger of going extinct.
He believed that the mechanised and value-added millets conservation efforts in the south Indian states had been more successful. He obtained the first tiny millet flouring mill, the only one in the district to this day, from Tamil Nadu.
The community seed bank project at Ghode's residence, run by the BAIF Development Research Foundation in Pune, currently has an impressive selection of millets. He has managed to gather 20 varieties of finger millets, ten different varieties of small millets, three different varieties of fox tail millets, and one each of brown top, barnyard, and Kodu millet via his own efforts.
He possesses native types of sorghum and pearl millet, which are presently in short supply. "I have conducted trials on my five acres of rented land and demonstrated how, on average, some millets can offer yields as high as 20 quintals per acre. The majority of farming uses organic inputs, which lowers production costs, he claimed.
Ghode has served as a resource person at numerous exhibitions at the ICAR's Millets Research Centre in Hyderabad thanks to his knowledge and experience.
Sangamner, Ahmednagar's sub-divisional agriculture officer Sudhakar Balasaheb Borale stated that they are in contact with Ghode and attempting to create a millets value chain.
The main challenge for farmers, according to a delightfully pleased Ghode in The Year of Millets, would be the lack of a solid end-to-end value chain for their crops. Without the influx of tourists, Ghode's millets might not have experienced the current level of demand. We now wish to package and brand our basic products since it would not only benefit us but also make it easier for customers to become accustomed to millets.
