While farmers across Punjab were toiling to gain some profit from paddy cultivation four years ago, Dilpreet Singh chose to grow millets on his 8-acre farm. Interestingly, this son of Punjab has now not only increased the production of millets but has exported 14.3 tonnes of millet and value-added products, worth $45,803, to Australia.
Hailing from Sangrur, Singh started sowing ragi and kodo millet in 2019, even before the government’s initiative to promote the millets. According to him, millets are the solution to problems such as water-level depletion and excessive usage of chemical fertilizers in Punjab.
Dilpreet Singh's Journey to Global Millet Export
The road to achieving this feat was not an easy one. Before commencing the journey to grow millets, Singh had to shift his previous crops, find laborers equipped to manage the farms and research the processing of the cereals. He also faced rebuke from other farmers who thought sowing ‘the unpopular crop’ would do more harm than good.
Notably, millets such as ragi, jowar, bajra, kodo, and many more are said to be consumed more often in ancient India than now. These grains, termed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as ‘Shree Anna’ are gluten-free, high in fiber, and provide more energy to the body than wheat and rice.
Against the Odds
“My only motivation to start millet production was to solve the issue of low water levels and environmental crisis attached to it in Punjab,” he says. The uphill battle he had to fight started with convincing his friends, who later proved efficient in increasing the land area to 14 acres. Not only this, he realized India was unwilling to accept millet as a substitute for rice and wheat. So, he went for a global market and became the first farmer to export around 14 tonnes of millets worth Rs 38 lakh to Australia, with the help of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) this month.
The four-year struggle involved complying with the terms and conditions established by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Another brimming challenge was to save millet seeds from reproduction outside of India. Many recommended Singh to crush the seeds and sell them in powder form, as an alternative method.
A Step Towards Health
“I want people to cook millets as easily as they cook rice in a cooker,” Singh opines. By keeping a hold on his problem-solving attitude, he underwent various procedures to deactivate the seeds, ensuring they lost their ability to regenerate and could not reproduce in foreign soil.
This led to the concept of ready-to-cook millets and the birth of his brand ‘Healthy Soil, Food & People’. While processing and packaging have raised the costs, Singh can now generate a substantial profit. The financial year 2023, which marked the International Year of Millets, proved essential for Singh, which helped entrepreneurs and farmers like him to get their undue recognition. He is aiming to achieve sales of Rs 75-80 lakh in the financial year 2024-25, with expanding his exports to Canada.
While this genius farmer belongs to a family of successful farmers, many others strive to achieve similar recognition. Hence, Singh expects the government to lend its helping hand to these farmers in the form of research, development, and subsidies.
