Think globally, eat Bhakri

My previous post talked about farmers in the Sittilingi valley intercropping millet, onions, and brinjal with cotton and turmeric so that they are food secure.

A millet grown widely in India and in the Sittilingi Valley is Bajra (Pearl Millet). Apparently, you need more energy to mill Bajra than you do to mill rice or wheat. Older ladies in the valley say they used to mill Bajra manually, but younger generations do not have the energy to do this. They also say they used to have the energy because they consumed Bajra!

Not sure if Bajra can make you powerful, but it is definitely healthier than rice or wheat: it has higher fibre content, and whole grain flour always has high levels of iron. Most importantly, it grows easily, even in soil that may be unfertile for other crops.

In the US, I've found millet flour in Whole Foods, though it doesn't say exactly which millet they milled! I've used it, and it's ok, though nothing like the Bajra flour straight from the farm that Suvarna used in Pune-the lady who used to help me with my house work, Suvarna, would bring home Bajra flour milled on her farm near Nasik. She taught me how to make Bajra Rotis, or Bhakris.
Think globally, eat bhakri.

The Story of the Cotton Ambulance

Helping farmers in the Sittilingi Valley weigh their organically grown cotton is a key part of the agriculture initiative of THI; previously, farmers would often get duped by traders to whom they sold their produce. But since THI purchased a weighing machine, farmers know exactly how much cotton they have produced before they go to the trader. Furthermore, thanks to negotiations carried out by THI, organically produced cotton is now sold at Rs. 7 above the market-price for inorganically grown cotton, to Co-optex, the Tamil Nadu government-owned handloom industry, making organic-cotton production lucrative in the valley. Increasing numbers of farmers in the valley are switching to organic farming, and many are looking to get certified as organic under the "group certification" scheme of the government, meant especially for small farmers. Picture: THI.