Bring millet back to kitchen for healthy life, says scientist

Solan, September 20

Dr Khadar Vali, who is known as the ‘Millet Man of India’, advocated the cultivation and use of millet to save water, soil, environment and human health at a workshop and Kisan Mela organised at Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, here last evening.

He called upon farmers, agriculture scientists and policymakers to promote millet.

The State Project Implementing Unit (SPIU) of the Prakritik Kheti Khushal Kisan Yojana (PK3Y) in association with the university organised the event. Over 200 farmers, who have adopted non-chemical, low cost and climate-resilient natural farming, participated in the event.

Agriculture Secretary Rakesh Kanwar, Nauni university Vice-Chancellor Rajeshwar Singh Chandel, PK3Y State Project Director Naresh Thakur, Agriculture Director BR Takhi, besides Umendra Dutt and Poonam Sharma from the Kheti Virasat Mission attended the workshop.

Dr Vali asked farmers to start cultivating millet – the ‘forgotten food’ — once again, instead of wheat and rice. “Water required for rice and wheat crops in one year is equal to the water requirement of millet for 26 to 30 years. This single reason is good enough for scientists and farmers to shift to the cultivation of millet,” he said.

He added that whether it was glucose imbalance, hormonal imbalance or microbes’ imbalance, humans were facing various health problems due to the ‘economic model’ being followed by society. He said his experiments had shown that eating millet not only helped in preventing diseases but also helped patients suffering from progressive diseases with improved indicators.