Millets - Back To The Future for Dharwad Farmers

Magic of Millets

Till the late ‘80s, millets were a crucial part of agricultural produce in the Dharwad region before cash crops like maize, improved varieties of cotton and soya bean took over. Today, farmers and consumers of Dharwad district are rediscovering the importance of millets, writes Anitha Pailoor 

Angadi says, “When we got a month’s income as a day’s wages, we forgot all about millets in our daily diet. Cooking rice was an easy and quicker way out. Now we have understood that the time saved is now spent in the waiting lounges of clinics.” 

It may just be me, but even the names sound musical:

He explains, “Jowar, little millet (saave), foxtail millet (navane), pearl millet (sajje) and to a certain extent, finger millet (ragi) and proso millet (baraga) formed a key part of the agricultural produce in Dharwad district till the late Eighties. When cash crops like maize, improved variety of cotton and soya bean were introduced, the tricky post-cultivation processes of raising millets turned out to be tedious and cumbersome for farmers.

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Licence to Fleece?

Link. 

Today, nobody can buy grain or vegetables directly from farmers without having an APMC licence. That, in turn, is difficult to obtain, even if one were prepared to pay the applicable market fee on the produce procured from the designated area falling under the particular APMC's jurisdiction. State Governments can, of course, be gratuitous in granting APMC licences to enable a Walmart or Tesco to operate. But that does not still address the basic issue of laws protecting entrenched trade cartels while restricting the universe of buyers for farmers.

Why the man-in-the-middle?  Isn't he the one fleecing the farmers on one side and the consumers on the other?