Himachal's Millet Man

This is International Year of Millets and I am in Karsog today, my hometown in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Ever since I was awarded the Padma Shri, the locals have been asking me to come and celebrate the award with them but I have been busy with meetings, lectures and conferences. About 40-50 of my associates had gathered; we go back close to three decades. These were the people who first joined hands with me and we started working with indigenous seeds. We have come a long way but it was a path rife with challenges and confrontations. The Padma award is not just mine, it is as much theirs. This award celebrates all that we have collectively achieved. It celebrates traditional wisdom.

Like most Pahari families, we were into farming too, but since I had got myself an education, I tried to find a government job. But when things didn’t work out, I turned towards farming.

Here, my education came handy. There was no culture of growing vegetables in our villages, but the books were singing paeans for spinach, carrot, radish and the like. We introduced these into our fields, depending heavily on chemical farming. This went on till the early 1990s. Meanwhile, my interest in farming took me to talks and seminars where I first heard people talking about organic farming. My foray into that direction was to take some time. Environmental concerns were my first step towards what you would call activism.

In the forest near our house in Nanj village of Karsog, overgrazing was leading to flooding during the monsoons. Entire crops would be washed away as there was no vegetation cover on the soil to stop the flow of rainwater rushing downwards. People would leave their cattle to graze in the forest meadows day and night. This would repeat year after year. It would hurt me to see the crops die that avoidable death. I began meeting people and telling them that they needed to stop grazing their cattle three to four months before the arrival of rains. Once they understood and followed, the results were there to see.

When you connect with your surroundings, you begin to see things clearly. We slowly started refusing to feed our cattle wheat straw from Punjab fields. We asserted our right over the forests nearby and began sowing seeds in the forests. We began making halwa for van devta (deity of the forest) and people, young and old, began joining us, some to sow seeds, some for the sake of halwa. Whatever their reasons, seeds were sown by everyone. That was the idea.

Soon, we realised how we were at fault with so many things. The seeds we were sowing in our fields were being stored along with celphos to protect from pests. On the other hand, our traditional grains never required pesticides. This marked the beginning of my journey with millets.

Each Pahari home earlier had a wooden box for storing various grains. Somewhere around the end of the last century and beginning of the 21st century, I began asking elderly farmers if they had any traditional grains and they would oblige. The wooden boxes had housed traditional wisdom. It was now returning to the fields. We began planting various kinds of millets — finger millet (ragi), foxtail millet (kangni or kauni), barnyard millet (saava), proso (chena)…

We roped in the Deccan Development Society from Hyderabad, who gave us technical knowledge and shared with us the nutrient value of each millet. From village to panchayat to block level, we went on distributing seeds: two handfuls to each farmer with the promise of the farmer returning two handfuls to us and distributing seeds to five more persons.

For years, we have been eating just wheat and rice. It has wreaked havoc on our health. Sab gadbad ho gaya hai. Everything has gone haywire. No one tells us amaranth is good for bone health and finger millet for diabetes. The latter is fibre-rich and releases glucose slowly. There is no chance you can get diabetes.

Some years ago, I did a biodiversity conservation study across the state, meeting the elderly and old-time vaids. People recalled how when they had an upset stomach, they would have a certain ragi soup. The younger generation needs to know this. We have tried to revive some of these and introduced some dishes to people at various fairs and events over the years.

Earlier, the departments concerned wouldn’t support us, but with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself advocating millets, we have received an overwhelming response. Then Governor Acharya Devvrat encouraged us to buy dehusking machines for millets, and Rakesh Kanwar, Secretary, Agriculture, lent a lot of help. I was at a two-day national conference in Delhi recently, and it was heartening to see people discuss the strides we have made in promoting millets and the challenges that farmers are encountering. While the availability of seeds is a major concern, dehusking is a major deterrent. We have machines to take care of that, but small farmers who have just taken to millets don’t have that facility. No one wants to use the okhali (mortar) these days. The entire ecosystem needs to be developed.

For the past one year, we have taken the idea of millets to people and introduced them to dishes made from millets at the Kullu Dasehra, Lavi fair at Rampur and Mandi Shivratri recently. People have appreciated our initiative. Our millet tea, made by roasting finger millet flour and dry fruits such as walnuts, peanuts and almonds, is a hit, and so is millet khichdi. At home, we make it slightly runny and my four-year-old grandson loves it. He also loves barnyard kheer. Tastes can be changed. Let this year be a start.

— The writer was recently awarded the Padma Shri for his contribution to agriculture

(As told to Sarika Sharma)