Dhan Foundation - Madurai

Join with us for promotion of small millets in the mainstream diets
DHAN Foundation
In South Asia, lack of dietary diversity is one of the key factors behind malnutrition and the prevalence of non‐communicable diseases such as diabetes. Inclusion of small millets in the regular diets could contribute to an answer. Performing well in marginal environments they have superior nutritional properties, including high micronutrient and dietary fibre content, and low glycemic index.
However, there has been a drastic decline in production and consumption of small millets mainly due to limited productivity, high drudgery involved in their processing, negative perceptions on small
millets as a food for the poor and policy neglect when compared to other crops.

DHAN Foundation has been undertaking research-for-development projects to increase the production and household consumption of small millets since 2011. It implemented ‘Revalorising Small Millets in Rainfed regions of South Asia Project’ along with partners from 2011 to 2014 which aimed to increase production and consumption of nutritious small millets in rainfed regions of India, Nepal & Sri Lanka. It focused on overcoming existing constraints related to production, distribution and consumption of small millets by pursuing a multipronged research strategy related to conservation, productivity enhancement, value addition, post-harvest processing, promotion and policy action to raise the profile of small millets.Since 2015 it is implementing “Scaling up Small Millet Post-harvest and Nutritious Food Products Project”along with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to scale up small millet processing and value addition technologies to reduce drudgery of women.
We welcome organisations and entrepreneurs to join hands with us for the cause of promoting small millets. We can offer the following:
1.Supporting potential buyers of processing machineries–NGOs, CBOs, private entities, Govt. schemes- by exposing them to various equipment options and offering structured support for equipment selection and procurement, technical operation and after sales service by the fabricators.
2.Capacity building support to the entrepreneurs coming forward to set up local small millet food enterprises on various aspects like product development, adopting hygiene standards & FSSAI norms, business plan preparation, etc.
3.Organising training of trainers on recipe demonstration to NGOs, CBOs, private entities and other interested organisations for building a cadre of local trainers who can take up recipe demonstration and awareness events in the working locations of these organisations.
For more details contact:
Mr. M. Karthikeyan, Program Leader and Principal Researcher karthikeyanrfd@gmail.com
Mr. P. Saravanan, Team Leader rfdpkrishnagiri@dhan.org 7397595022, 8667566368