Pearl Millet being HarvestedMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
The return of millets
Millets are a variety of grasses with small seeds grown for human consumption and for animal fodder. Like other cereal crops, millets require processing before they can be eaten - a time and labour-intensive process, undertaken mostly by women, once the crop has been harvested.
Woman Winnowing Millet GrainsMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Traditional processing
Traditionally, women processed millets by first threshing them i.e. beating them with a stick to separate the chaff from the grain, followed by winnowing to remove impurities.
Next the grains are dehusked or dehulled i.e. pounded with a heavy pestle and mortar to remove the grain’s indigestible husk, leaving behind the nutrient-rich bran.
Woman Farmer Proudly Showing Her HarvestMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Once cleaned and sorted, the grains are milled i.e the grains are ground to flour with a stone grinder. Processing is different for different millets. The major millets, sorghum, pearl and finger millet are naked grains and don’t have a husk.
On the other hand, processing of small millets requires more effort, as they must be dehusked to get the millet rice.
Processing today
Technological innovations in millet processing like mechanical dehulling has made the process faster and more efficient. Government initiatives such as community-level small millet processing units in villages enable women to save time, offer better quality and increased output, allowing them to become suppliers and even entrepreneurs in the millet value chain.
Large-scale millet processing units can help process millets faster into flour, from which further value-added products can be made, benefitting thousands of farmers in the region but also encouraging them to take up millet farming on a larger scale.
Harvest Tractor Near FieldsMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Ancient grains, modern technology
A typical modern millet-processing unit uses a multi-sieve grader to remove impurities from the harvested grains.
The grains are then transferred to a destoner which further removes small stones and mud balls, and then to the dehuller for removal of husk.
Millet postersMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Finally, the dehulled grains are transferred to a pulveriser, where they are ground to fine flour, used to make value-added products like pizza bases, cookies, pancake mixes, noodles, pastas, and even edible cutlery.
Harvested Pearl MilletsMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Small machines, big impact
Inventions like the table top dehuller by Madurai-based DHAN foundation requires minimal space, and runs on household power supply. It costs under a lakh, compared to a mid-scale processing unit which might cost up to almost five times that, making commercial milling available to women’s self-help groups as well as small-scale entrepreneurs in villages.
Laddoos made with Finger MilletsMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
A new world
Millet-based products are making their way to grocery shelves thanks to innovations in secondary processing, which convert primary processed millets into ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products.
These include traditional popping and flaking as well as contemporary methods like roller-drying and extrusion cooking (using high temperatures to transform raw ingredients into modified intermediate and finished products, often in a particular shape).
Small-Scale Millet Processing UnitMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
The ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research hosts the recently launched Nutrihub to pioneer innovation in millets' processing.
Muesli with Mixed MilletsMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Tech vs Nutrition: Food for thought
As with all grains, over-processing reduces nutritional benefits. While some degree of processing (traditionally, soaking and fermentation) is essential to lower the anti-nutrients present in millets, over-milling and secondary-processing can reduce the overall nutrient quality, with a reduction of total proteins, fiber and micronutrients. One way to overcome this challenge is to fortify value-added millet products.
Millet postersMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
The way forward
Technology plays an important role in reducing the manual labour of women when it comes to processing millets, and opens up new opportunities for them as entrepreneurs. Applying newer cooking technologies to millets also helps create a larger market for millets, catering to those who want to add millets to their diet, but who don’t know how, or don't want, to cook with them.
Text and images courtesy Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India
