1. Millets Initiative Phase II April 2012 – March 2013

2. Review of Phase I (Jan 2010 – Jan 2011) Review of Phase I

3. Activities carried out  Promotion of millets cultivation with farmers.  Development of processing facility.  Promotion and marketing of millet foods.  Networking with institutions, groups, and individuals working on millets.  Documentation of millets crop cultivation. Review of Phase I

4. Success Stories  Earth 360 has gained lot of reputation in the last 2 years.  Earth 360 has more variety of millets than others.  Deccan Development Society (DDS) which has been in this field for 20 years is now purchasing millets from Earth 360.  Millets will be included for two days in a week in the midday meal scheme of the government in the Anantapur district.  Established linkages with the government(Dinesh met with ICAR members).  Dinesh is now appointed as the convener for Association for Millets Enterprise in Andhra Pradesh. Review of Phase I

5. Challenges  Human resource – Dinesh faces a challenge retaining the people who are appointed because of various reasons, salary being one of the main reason. Many of the duties require graduates and retaining them for low salaries in villages is a challenge.  Machinery – There are some parts in the processing cycle which are still not mechanized and are done manually. Attempts are being made to purchase new machines. There are also issues with exisiting machines and they are trying to resolves those issues as well.  Marketing – Though a significant progress has been made in the marketing aspect, there is a long way to go. The key is the resources and time that has to be invested. Review of Phase I

6. Proposal for Phase II Proposal

7.  Primary Goal – To encourage and help farmers with millet cultivation and spread awareness about millets.  Area – Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh.  Time period – April 2012 – March 2013  Budget – Rs.9,20,000 ($16,429 @ Rs.56)  NGO – Covenant Center for Development  Saathi – Dinesh Proposal

8. Crops Promotion Proposal

9. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To establish contacts with local farmers and encourage millets cultivation.  Progress till now - Established contacts with farmers in 5 mandals in Kadiri and millet cultivation revived after a long gap of 25 years.  Plan for future – To undertake millets cultivation in 15 villages in 4 mandals. Proposal Awareness meeting for farmers on millet cultivation at Tallakalva. Millet food at the programme.

10. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To support farmers by providing millet seeds and organizing demonstrations.  Progress till now – Supported farmers from 10 villages(belonging to 3 mandals) and 3 tons of various millet seeds were distributed in 2011-2012.  Plan for future – To distribute 2 tons of seeds to farmers in the new mandals and also try to subsidize the seeds. Proposal Millet seed drill development

11. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To identify and arrange for specific varieties of seeds to farmers and select them for multiplication.  Progress till now – Varieties selected in foxtail millet, little millet, pearl millet were selected for multiplication and 900kg of seeds were made available for distribution.  Plan for future – To select good performing millets suitable for this region. Proposal

12. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To organize exposure visits for farmers to visit other well maintained millet fields.  Progress till now – 100 farmers were taken for such visits out of which 50 farmers came forward for millet cultivation.  Plan for future – To do more such visits and demonstrations for farmers in the new mandals. Proposal Farmers visit to foxtail millet crop

13. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To prepare organic solutions for improving the crop and enhancing the production.  Progress till now – These solutions were prepared and tried in 2 villages.  Plan for future – To prepare more of these for helping the farmers improve the cropping practices. Plan is to give 1 set for each village. Proposal Pearl Millet Field Pearl millet ear head

14. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To procure millets cultivated by farmers.  Progress till now – Procured 20 tons of millets and farmers were supported by their villages.  Plan for future – To organize a proper system for procuring the millets that are being cultivated. Proposal Little millet ready for threshing

15. Crops Promotion  Planned activity – To help farmers process the millets so that they can be used for their household consumption.  Progress till now – 500Kg of millets were processed and famers are now using millets in their households regularly.  Plan for future – To establish a system where processing of millets for the farmers household use becomes easy. Proposal Threshing of little millet

16. Processing Facility Proposal

17. Processing Facility  Planned activity – To explore options for the machinery to be used for processing all the 9 varieties of millets used.  Progress till now – Machines for cleaning, grading, and dehusking all the varieties of millets have been identified and trials were done.  Plan for future – To improve or replace the existing machinery for better efficiency. Proposal

18. Processing Facility  Planned activity – To set up the assembly line with the appropriate machines for processing rice, rava and flour.  Progress till now – Machines have been set up and processing has begun for rice, rava and flour. The current monthly capacity is 5 tons.  Plan for future – To make the necessary changes in the assembly line in order to achieve the target of 1 ton per hour. Proposal

19. Processing Facility  Planned activity – To organize trials for processing the millets.  Progress till now – Regular trials have been conducted and processing methods are being followed for improving efficiency.  Plan for future – To bring in experts to get advice on how to improve processing practices, quality, overall productivity of the plant and also on how to reduce losses. Proposal

20. Processing Facility  Planned activity – To train the team on grain processing.  Progress till now – A selected group of youngsters are being trained currently.  Plan for future – To develop a training module for helping the team working on the processing unit and also prepare a plan for new workers. Proposal

21. Processing Facility  Planned activity – To organize infrastructure for storage, packing and distribution of millets.  Progress till now – Infrastructure is being established. Millets have been packed and stored properly to retain the quality.  Plan for future – To build infrastructure for storing, packing and delivering. Proposal

22. Food Promotion Proposal

23. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To prepare ready to eat and ready to cook products.  Progress till now – Explored different options and prepared millet based rotis, ready mixes and savories.  Plan for future – To identify diverse product ranges to meet the needs of different categories of people, like pregnant women, old aged people, etc. Proposal

24. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To train a team for preparing the various millet products.  Progress till now – Selected a team of women to prepare these products and regular production has begun.  Plan for future – To train a group of 20 by the end of 2013 to ensure regular production of the millet based products. Proposal

25. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To train a group for setting up a hotel(based on millets) in Kadiri and to train professional cooks on preparation of millets based dishes for large gatherings.  Progress till now – A family was trained to establish the hotel and chefs have been trained on millet based dishes. 5 events where millets based dishes were served have been organized.  Plan for future – To organize necessary promotional support and improve performance of the hotel (in Kadiri) to attract more people and to train12 more cooks for other towns. Proposal Restaurant Mane in Mysore, where Millet menu is being introduced.

26. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To work on networking with other groups and organizations for promoting and marketing millets.  Progress till now – Contacts in various cities, like Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Mysore, Vijayawada have been established and a constant demand for millets has been built.  Plan for future – To improve marketing of millets with existing customers and to establish relations with newer customers and also work on materials about millet based dishes, to increase awareness among consumers. Proposal

27. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To participate in melas and conduct millet melas to reach out to consumers in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad.  Progress till now – In the past 2 years, Earth 360 has participated in 6 melas and displayed products and served millet based dishes. Local contacts have been established because of these melas.  Plan for future – To participate in 6 melas in the next one year and also organize promotional events in Kadiri and other towns. Proposal Earth 360 Stall at Mela Bhoomi network, Bangalore.

28. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To conduct training for women’s groups on millets based dishes.  Progress till now – Millet recipes for household consumption have been demonstrated and expertise was developed to prepare dishes for a group of 50 members.  Plan for future – To hold training programs to individuals who are interested in learning new millet based recipes. Proposal

29. Food Promotion  Planned activity – To develop contacts with other groups working on millet foods and related research.  Progress till now – Developed contacts with UAF, DSR and DFRL. A range of millet based products identified for different purposes and information relating to benefits of millet foods has been collected for sharing.  Plan for future – To identify and develop millet products specific to needs. Proposal

30. Networking Proposal

31. Networking  Planned activity – To strengthen the millets value chain.  Progress till now – Dinesh has been made the convener of Association of Millets enterprises of Andhra Pradesh.  Plan for future – To document the experiences of Earth 360 in millets processing and developing so that it can be passed on to other groups working on millets. Proposal

32. Networking  Planned activity – To identify different groups, institutions and individuals working on the promotion of millets.  Progress till now – Established contacts with research institutions, governments departments, other NGOs, etc to bring in necessary support to strengthen and diversify the work of the Millets Initiative.  Plan for future – To start a campaign for millets promotion in an intensive manner with involvement of different stake holders in the value chain. To work on this campaign a core group is to be formed. Proposal

33. Documentation Proposal

34. Documentation  Earth 360 website - http://www.earth360.in/web/Millets.html http://www.earth360.in/web/Millets.html  Millets Blog - http://millets.wordpress.com/http://millets.wordpress.com/  Reports and other materials – Uploaded to Skydrive.  Pictures and videos – Yet to receive from Kiran. Proposal

35. Q & A  Is it possible to get the data from the previous cultivation?  Data from the previous cultivation -  Seeds distributed among farmers – 3 tons  Grain harvested – 40-50 tons  Amount procured by Earth 360 – 20 tons  Amount farmers were paid for the grains procured – Rs. 12/Kg – Rs. 16/Kg  Processing loss by weight – 40%  Capacity of the processing unit – 200Kg/day (Improved from 50Kg/day).  Amount of processed grain sold – 3 tons/month (Improved from 400Kg/month).  Amount the grain was sold at – Rs.1,20,000 (According to sales in April 2012). (Improved from Rs.16,000). Q & A

36.  How many acres was under millet cultivation?  Approx. 500 acres (2 acres/farmer and 259 farmers cultivated millets).  Are there other processing units in Andhra or elsewhere which work on similar tasks of processing millets?  There are very few organizations focusing on millets and Dinesh has interacted with almost all of them. Typically they have smaller processing units handling lesser quantities, and they handle only one or two dominant millets of that area. In Earth360, Dinesh is working to build a processing unit with higher capacity, handling much more quantities that can be supplied at commercial scale and make it a viable venture. The other speciality is handling the whole range of millets from bajra and jowar to foxtail, kodo and little millet. Q & A

37.  Where does DDS(Deccan Development Society) get its grains from?  DDS has a small processing unit and they carry limited amount of millets. DDS also procures millets sometimes from Earth 360 to meet their demand.  What are the activities of Association for Millet Enterprises?  This has just been convened at a follow-up meeting organized by the A.P. government after the successful Millets Mela in April. The Association was formed in the presence of Agriculture Commissioner by 12 millet enterprises who participated. The purpose is to promote marketing of millets and interface with the government which is interested in facilitating the market. Dinesh might not be able to give much time at this point to building the Association, but it is a useful entity which can be built based on further developments. Q & A

38.  Are they working with any agricultural research institutes that could help with the research of seeds, etc so that turnaround time can be lesser?  Dinesh is working closely with All India Coordinated Research Project on Small Millets and the ex-Director Dr. Seetharam has visited the Millets initiative and assured technical support. They also obtained foxtail millet seed from regional research centre in Nandyal. But note that Dinesh himself is considered as one of the excellent resource persons on millet cultivation by these institutes and even by eminent people like Dr.Seetharam. We have to see technical improvements as a two-way process between farmers and field resource persons at one end, and scientists at the other.  Is there any state that currently has millets in the PDS?  Some states have small quantities of millets (mainly jowar and bajra) distributed in PDS. Dinesh initiated a pilot project for distributing millets in PDS in 5 villages. The result is considered positive and is quoted in government workshops. The new Food Security Bill placed in the Parliament includes millets in the PDS. Still, Dinesh feels that it is a very complex issue. Lot of planning and infrastructure is needed. There are too many departments that need to be involved like, FCI, Dept. Of Civil Supplies, etc. Q & A

39.  How are the farmers feeling about the millet crop cultivation?  Earlier farmers used to grow only one crop, like groundnut which is dependent on rains. Whenever there were no rains, it used to be difficult. Now, with millet cultivation, even if there are no rains, there is an assurance for the farmer because they will be harvesting at least one crop. So, the farmers feel more secure. Apart from having a successful crop, they also have food security because the farmers keep a portion of the yield for their consumption. (Documents with experiences from a few of the farmers are in Telugu. Will be narrated in English in CSH). Q & A

40.  Can we get quantifiable goals for this phase?  Quantifiable goals for this phase(short term – 1 year)  To increase processing capacity from 200kg/day to 500 kg/hr.  To have sales of 5 ton/month (gross revenue of Rs. 2,00,000).  To participate in 6 melas this year.  To collaborate with at least 2 other NGOs in the area to expand millet cultivation among their farmers. No. of farmers directly working with Dinesh & team will remain same.  To provide handholding support to at least 1 more processing unit to be set up in another part of A.P.  To expand the inclusion of millets in government schemes  Long term goals(Dinesh’s ideal goal) -  To build a processing capacity of 1 ton/hour.  To establish a model for more millet enterprises to come up  To have small processing units installed in villages, to ensure farmers can process the grains themselves for their consumption.  To help bring some changes in the Government policies, like introduction of millets in PDS, in midday meal schemes(This has been promised by Govt. already but not implemented yet.), etc. Q & A

41. More Q & A  Is Dinesh exploring other sources of funding other than AID? On a related note, are other chapters interested? Anyone who has supported Dinesh in the past for his projects?  Big part of the enterprise expenses are covered by the revenue from the enterprise. Grant wise, AID is the only source.  He is exploring some sources within India, but that is more focused on finances for the enterprise itself. Note that Dinesh and his supporters are putting in several lakhs of personal money and taking risk to establish this enterprise. AID is only providing part of the resources to facilitate and create the environment for millets to spread. AID’s support is laying the ground for more millet enterprises to come up – not just to make Earth360 succeed.  Princeton supports Dinesh’s Saathiship. It is a small chapter and cannot take up any projects. Seattle chapter can consider approving the total amount and send only half the funds now, and in the meantime approach other chapters and check if they are interested. After 6 months, we can review the reports and re-evaluate the status at that time. Q & A

42.  If we hypothetically only fund a part of the budget, can they scale down the project and goals to ensure the entire process still happens?  There cannot be any scaling down as such. For the enterprise to become viable, a certain scale has to be achieved in the next two years and the plan has been made based on that (crop production, processing capacity, awareness, marketing, sales). If the funding is not sufficient, they might have to cut down some activities of awareness, marketing, training etc, but this might affect their sales targets and reduce outreach.  Plan is always to scale up. Rishi Valley and other schools also have been approached. He is also looking forward to reach out to Eureka villages through AID since there is already AID’s presence there. Q & A

43.  What is the timeline for executing the project and when can we get the first set of reports/progress if we fund this? On a related note - how soon does Dinesh need funds for this?  The timeline is 1 year for this phase, and Dinesh sees this enterprise to be sustainable in 2 years. The first set of reports can be obtained by December. Crop harvesting is usually done in November.  Funds are needed right away. Q & A

44.  How much of this funding is towards the short term goal?  Important short-term goals include increasing the processing capacity, sales and outreach. A big part of the requested funding is to raise awareness, strengthen the marketing, outreach through melas, food festivals, media, etc. This helps directly in the short-term goals. The other part of funding is for working with farmers to cultivate millets. This is also directly helping the short-term goals. Building and strengthening this whole team of course helps in moving towards the long-term goals too. Q & A

45.  Is there a projected demand for millets? If so, how much higher is that demand compared to last year's production? There is a goal to sell 5 tons/month, to increase the processing unit's capacity from 200Kg/day to 500Kg/hour, which translates to ~2000Kg/day, considering the plant runs only for a 6th of a day due to various reasons. That itself is a ten-fold increase in capacity. Is there such a demand? Also, if they are not planning to increase the number of farmers, where is the processing unit going to get the feed for the increased capacity?  500 Kg/hour(varies with each millet) can vary from 100Kg/hr - 500Kg/hr depending on the kind of millet. Millets processing is more complex than a single commodity model(5 ton/hr in case of paddy). 500kg/hr is the maximum efficiency of the unit. But the unit will not run at its highest capacity always. There is preparatory time, which is a lot of time that goes into preparation, cleaning, etc. Also, there are many other factors, like maintenance, power failures, not enough unprocessed grain at all times of the year, etc. 200-250 working days (approx. 20 days a month). If processing is faster, same people can work in other areas. Target - 20 ton/month.(approx. 600Kg/day).  There is demand as long as there is a steady supply. People are not even aware that some products are available. So, demand is slowly building up. Q & A

46.  Self-sustainability: On a high level it is close to a $20000/year budget for the second year of a program. Is there any plan to make the millets cultivation initiative self-sustainable? Leaving out the areas where the crop was not successful due to weather conditions, among the areas where it was successful, how much support and help do the farmers need compared to last year? Is there a vision when Dinesh and team can walk away from it and the farmers will continue to adopt and cultivate millets?  The plan for sustainability is there. As per Dinesh' estimate, if the processing unit reaches its capacity of 500Kg/hr, he sees this enterprise to be sustainable. Right now too, they meet some of the enterprise's expenses through the income generated by selling the processed grains.  It will take couple of seasons to organize and come up with a good productive millet systems. Introducing millets alone is not enough. They need to work on cultivation and marketing needs to promote millets. It takes about 5 years to help the farmers have a good sustainable solution.  Millet cultivation is place depandant. Each village might have its own unique conditions and to fine tune to which variety of millet works where is going to take time. Last year somebody tried Arikelu(Kodo Millet) in Bandikaadupalli. Out of 3 farmers, only 1 was successful. While farmers are trying different millets, other farmers get encouraged as they success. Q & A

47.  What is the amount wasted? It says 40%. Is this the wastage in processing or did actual yield crops get wasted for reasons like lack of storage, insect attacks and such?  This is the wastage during processing. So it should be termed as processing loss and not wastage. It is husk, etc. which needs to be removed in order to make the grain ready for consumption. When they get the unprocessed grain from the farmer a lot of other particles like loose seed coat, unfilled grains, mud balls, stones, etc. are also included. After segregating all these they get 60% material. (The enterprise pays the farmer before segregating any of these particles). If all the conditions are good, then the processing loss might go down. Q & A

48.  Last year they distributed 3 tons of seed, why is it 2 tons this year?  1 ton seeds were generated through multiplication(process of selecting good seeds from previous crop).  50 out of the 100 farmers taken on visits to other well maintained millet fields actually decided to adopt it. What was the reason the other 50 didn't? How are those reasons being addressed so that more farmers will be inclined to turn to millets?  They focused on the farmers that were keen in taking this forward. Organizing activities involves lot of effort. Working with the farmers that are keen is more effective and they themselves can act as change agents. Q & A

49.  What were the organic solutions prepared and tried in two villages (refer to slide13)? How successful was it?  Earth 360 encouraged the use of farmyard manure and jeevamrutham(made from cow urine, cow dung, jaggery, basin powder and top soil) and farmers who used these got good yield. The general tendency for millet cultivation is not to use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, since millets are pest-resistant. So, the famers usually consider millet cultivation as low effort but Earth 360 is encouraging them to use organic inputs to increase yield by sharing the success stories of those who used. Q & A

50.  Are all the 9 varieties of millets equally liked by the consumers? If some are more popular than the others, why is the emphasis to support all 9 varieties? Or in other words, will it be more cost effective to focus on the varieties that are more popular?  They are not all equally popular because they have not been popularized in that way. Here, they are trying to bring up a production system, which is sustainable, and reliable. Aim is to diversify. Millets provide variety and we should try to promote that diversity and spread awareness about this diversity. Most of the general population are not aware about the wide variety of millets. From market point of view, it might make sense to concentrate on the popular varieties of millets. There are different nutritional values for each of these. Also, the farmer is being provided all these options so that depending on soil conditions, etc a certain variety of millet can be cultivated. Also, each variety of millet can be used in its own way of preparation. Ex. Ragi can be made as porridge, jowar is better for rotis, foxtail millet can be used as rice. So, by diversifying we can cater to the demand of variety in consumption. Each of them have their own advantages and are preferred for consumption based on seasons as well. Q & A

51.  The plan to build infrastructure for storing, packing and delivery ties back to the question on demand (refer to slide 21). The presentation indicates some infrastructure is already in place. What is in place and how much more is being planned for? Is the additional infrastructure planning in line with any projected demand?  There is the processing unit which has all the processing machines for various tasks like cleaning, grading, dehusking, packing, etc. Then there is also one area(godown) for storage that has the capacity of 80 tons. Earth 360 is planning to build a 500 sq foot unit for temporary storage, for making ready-made products, etc. They are also planning to leave an area for display and demonstrations of these products. Currently,14 people are employed in the processing/packing/product making unit. If everything goes well then he is expecting 4-5 more people to join. Q & A

52.  How successful are the millet based ready mixes etc..?  Response from Seattle chapter was encouraging. Earth 360 recently started experimenting with ready mixes. Right now, it is on a small scale and is on on- demand basis. They are consulting other folks who have experience in this area before scaling up. They would ensure consistent quality in these products before opening up to public on their website. Q & A

53.  I like the idea of promoting it in restaurants as part of the menu. What is the plan for diversifying this into other restaurants, villages, towns, markets? Heritage restaurants would be a nice place to seek induction of millet based dishes. It will also get more exposure.  Dinesh's plan was to start in the Kadri town(this already started) and gradually reach out to restaurants in other towns, etc. As you can in see in one of the slides, he is helping the Mysore Thane restaurant to come with millet based dishes in its menu. Dinesh is not aware of Heritage restaurants. If you can get some contacts and put him in touch with them that will be great. If they are keen on introducing millets, then he and his team are more than happy to train their cooks. Q & A

54.  50,000 for documentation - how much for videos, bill boards or sign boards, reference books, picture books, whatever is an effective form of documentation?  To do a real good job in documentation, Rs.50,000 is not enough. It is an estimate of how much they plan to spend. Depending on the activities, they will use it. One example: now that they have a good video camera, short films can be made. It also depends on whom they work with. Instead of outsourcing there, it will be helpful if somebody from Seattle can take it up to help with video editing. Dinesh wants to create brochures in different languages. Dinesh wants to have audio/video displays for farmers which will be more effective. Q & A

55.  Can we preview to their monthly review reports?  Dinesh keeps sending reports and he will continue to do that. It has not been happening monthly, but it is in the frequency of once in couple of months. He and his team are always open to give the updates. (Samyukta and Sunitha will keep in touch with him once in 3-4 months and will keep the chapter updated) Q & A

56.  Do they need all the money upfront or can we budget quarterly? further, can we subject the quarterly budgets to reviews? Like Chitra asked, can they either scale this down if the budget is less or can they implement in smaller units? I am not even sure if this is possible but theoretically, can they do all this things in a much smaller scale, say only for so many farmers or so much land. Then, based on the success, they can look to replicate the same effort elsewhere and elsewhere and so on..? (Already answered in slides 41 and 42). Q & A

57.  Seems like there are 12 millet melas budgeted for but the goal is only to have 6. There seems to be a disconnect somewhere.  Plan to host small programs locally, need not be like a full melas. It could be demonstrations in places like Bangalore, Chennai, etc.  Will the program facilitation section, building of millets promotion team and facilitator expense be a recurring charge every year? All those combined, amounts close to $10,000.  If they manage to get support to do good packaging, etc. and if they are getting higher margins, then the enterprise might be able to support these employees. They believe that they will have to run a campaign for a couple of years. For including millets in mainstream, etc, the process is longer. Other groups who are interested need to be trained. To identify youngsters and train them is one of the things that they are looking forward to. Plan is to train people to specialize in some specific fields so that they can earn their livelihood through this. Q & A

58.  Association for millet enterprise: feeling that it will take up too much time is not a reason for not co- ordinating with that government body. I feel if that organization has just been convened, then it might be a good idea to approach them now and seek support. If it is a fairly new government enterprise, they might actually be eager to help. Of course, practically, there will be the usual bureaucracy and red tape and if that is the problem then maybe we should connect Dinesh and Pankti  We clarified this with Dinesh and Kiran. Please refer to slide 37. Q & A