Focus needed on nutrition and biodiversity, says millets scientist

Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) principal scientist Sanjana Reddy careworn the necessity to deal with diet and biodiversity, because the month-long cell biodiversity competition by the Deccan Development Society (DDS) kicked off at Jamgarbouli Thanda in Mogudampally mandal on Saturday.

She stated the nation has a range of soils and eco-regions. “After Green Revolution, monocropping of some crops has unfold throughout the nation. This was supposed to problem the meals safety disaster that our nation was dealing with however it has now resulted in a number of different crises in well being, diet, and ecology. Yield was thought of as the one metric to measure agriculture however different values like diet and biodiversity had been ignored,” she noticed.

Expressing happiness over the competition led by ladies farmers themselves to have fun their heritage crops and to speak the worth of millets and their consumption at a grassroot degree, Dr. Sanjana Reddy stated seed preservation and value-addition initiatives for seed safety and livelihood enchancment will encourage extra farmers to comply with the trail.

DDS director P.V. Satheesh stated it was astounding to witness how the competition has grown over the past 20 years. “Earlier, it was a small competition at a single place. But it has now exapanded to round 25 villages with the farmers themselves taking the initiative to organise the competition of their villages. Jangarbouli Thanda is a faraway and comparatively new village for DDS. Yet, they’ve taken up the duty to organise the opening ceremony and celebrated it grandly. Jathara is a standard celebration type in our villages and the innovation of this competition is that quite than contemplating any god or faith, conventional seeds are celebrated on this competition and paraded round,” he stated.

From being uncared for and regarded as drought meals, millets at the moment are recognised as the most important resolution to the present meals system challenges, Mr. Satheesh stated, including that the indigenous data and long-standing efforts of the ladies farmers have saved the crops alive for many years.

DDS co-director Jayasri Cherukuri, biodiversity conserving farmers from Mogudampally Chouhan Sudha Bai, Jyothi Bai, Kidhidoddi Mariyamma and Begari Rangamma amongst others participated within the programme.