Feature Stories - The Locavore

12 min

A Slow-moving Crisis Below the Threshold of Disaster

Bhrigupati Singh

How do tastes and desires, social hierarchies, access to resources, and public policy intersect to create complicated lived realities? Dr. Bhrigupati Singh explores some of these questions in the context of wheat and millets through his ethnographic research in Shahabad, Rajasthan.

5 min

Books on Food

Flour Power: Women-led Millet Value Chains Improve Local Nutrition

Saahil Parekh, Karan Shinghal, Nandini Agarwal, and Shuva Raha

Flour Power, an excerpt from ‘Millet Mantra’, narrates the story of tenacious women entrepreneurs and collectives, and how processing ragi into flour paved the way for their independence, and that of the district's to better nutrition.

9 min

Shared With Elephants: Growing Ragi in Harmony with Local Wildlife

Shivani Unakar

For farmers working in proximity with forested areas, cultivating food crops is fraught with conflict. But a community led initiative is now trying to safeguard both—local farms in southern India’s ragi growing belt as well as wild elephants who can’t get enough of the tasty millet.

12 min

As Millets Steal the Spotlight, What Do Its Growers Have to Say about It?

Nidaphi Hynniewta

Numerous efforts are being made across the country to revive millets, and promote its consumption. But what does it mean for farmers who grow these grains? Nidaphi Hynniewta speaks to millet farmers from Meghalaya.

PDS users collecting ration grains in Sohdag Khurd village, Jharkhand. While millets have been subsidised and made available through the PDS, rice remains a staple among beneficiaries. Photo by Mithilesh Singh.

10 min

Millets in the PDS—Has It Been Successful?

Ananya Vhavle and Oishika Roy

Ragi, jowar, and bajra have been introduced in the public distribution systems in recent years. Ananya Vhavle and Oishika Roy look at the factors that define the grains’ acceptability, such as price, cultural relevance, and ease of consumption, and find that there are no straightforward answers.

11 min

Songs of Survival: The Cultural Memory that Kept Millets Alive

Sohel Sarkar

Certain food memories linger in a community’s collective consciousness long after the food itself may have disappeared from people’s plates and farmers’ fields. Sohel Sarkar writes on the farming songs and rituals that have sustained millets in different parts of India.

4 min

Books on Food

Chasing Millets in North Bengal and Sikkim: An Excerpt From Seeds and Food Sovereignty

Bengt G Karlsson

Millets are mainly grown today for the purpose of making eu or millet wine, finds Bengt G Karlsson, while travelling through parts of West Bengal.

9 min

‘Odisha Millets Mission is a People’s Programme’

The Locavore Team

What makes Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) stand out in a sea of other government programmes? The Locavore learns about how women Self-Help Groups are championing millets, and the inclusion of ragi ladoos in Anganwadi meals.

7 min

The Return of the Forgotten Millet

Arathi Menon

With the United Nations declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYOM), and the growing attempts to revive this ancient Indian grain, do you ever wonder where it disappeared to in the first place? Arathi Menon helps us understand why millets vanished from our diets, and the value of bringing it back.

3 min

‘Keerai pori is something I enjoy during the monsoon’

Jestin Pauls (interview) & Sharanya Manivannan (translation from Tamil)

What does it mean to be in tune with changing seasons? Janagiamma, a leader of the indigeneous Kurumba community in the Nilgiris, tells us that millets and bamboo are good for the monsoons.

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