Millets To Take Center Stage In Bengaluru’s Trade Fair

The three day fair happening this weekend in Bengaluru is focusing on organic food and health reports F&B News. The fair is named ‘Organics and Millets International Trade Fair 2019’. It will be featuring 400 booths amongst with 220 will be dedicated to exhibitions from 10 states of India as well as food courts. The health minister of the state spoke to the media about health benefits of food like millets and organic food.

“Until a few decades ago, millets were a staple diet in several parts of Karnataka, but with exposure to western culture, these super grains have gradually been removed from mainstream consumption,” said N H Shivashankara Reddy, state agriculture minister while speaking to F&B News. “However, over the last few years, we are witnessing the comeback of millets, and with health awareness spreading across urban areas, there is a rising demand for millets,” he added.

Benefit For Farmers

“Farmers in Karnataka are often faced with deficient rainfall and face difficulty in growing crops. Many farmers opt for rice cultivation as there is high demand for rice. If we compare millets to rice, millets require almost 70 per cent less water, no pesticides and minimal or no chemical fertilisers, making them the most environment-friendly crop,” K G Jagadeesha, commissioner of agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka told the publication.

He also said that, “The area under organic cultivation has registered a steady growth in the state, increasing from 2,500 hectare to 1,00,000 hectare as on date. The government’s aim is to increase this to about 1.5 lakh hectare in the coming three years. In order to help farmers market their produce effectively, the government has formed 15 regional organic federations through which organics and millets processing and marketing activities are taken up. These efforts will, in turn, result in an increase in the cultivated area for organics and millets and develop an organised market and to popularise organics and millets as super foods.”