TRANSFORMING THE LIVES OF farmers through millets
MEET VEER SHETTY
Early Life
My name is Veer Shetty and I am often referred to as the current "Millet Man of Telangana". I'm a native of Gangapur village in Telangana’s Sangareddy district of India. I was born into a poor farming family and experienced hunger in life. Initially, as a young child and later as a truck driver on the roads of India.
My life changed forever when I took a steady job as the assistant to Dr C H Ravindra Reddy. Dr. Reddy was the principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and he was a World expert in Millet farming.
I spent two decades working on Millet farms governed by the Institute. I toiled and grafted alongside local millet farmers, supporting them. When I look back, this period developed my deep practical expertise in Millet farming that has been the basis of my livelihood ever since. I will be eternally grateful for this period of learning and doing.
ENTREPRENEUR
I left the Institute with Dr. Reddy's blessings to start my own Millets journey.
I founded my first company, SS Bhavani Foods, named after my daughter. This was a shop and restaurant focused on selling Millet based meals and edibles.
15 years later, I have 3 shops, including Delhi and Hyderabad. I have a factory in my hometown of Chandanagar, Hyderabad, and it produces over 25 millet products such as kadak bhakri, chivda, laddu, millet Rava, and millet atta. I also launched Millovit Health Mix, which claims to boost immunity and protect against Covid-19 infection.
I am proud to say that my business now encompasses the full-lifecycle of "Farm to Plate": millet farming, processing of millets, manufacture of millet based foods and retail of millet based foods.
SOCIAL entrepreneur
Following this moderate success in my entrepreneurial journey, I set up an NGO called Swayam Shakthi Agri Foundation. My NGO is committed to bettering the lives of my fellow farmers and their families. Specifically, by educating and supporting farmers to transition to farming Millets as opposed to their existing crop.
I believe that the case for converting farmers to Millet farming is extremely compelling from a social, economic, health, societal and emotional perspective.
THE CASE FOR MILLET FARMING
Climate Change
Millets are far more robust than rice or wheat. They require much less water and are much more tolerant to heat when being farmed. They are far more likely to survive through flooding or drought.
This makes the crop an obvious choice for farmers in an era of climate change and depleting natural resources.
Millets are also an ideal solution for countries to improve food security, increase self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on imported cereal grains. They need minimal inputs, are resistant to diseases and pests and offer a reduced dependence on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
Farmer Welfare
Farmer welfare is perhaps the most significant reason for encouraging a farmer to transition to Millet farming in India.
Climate change continues to reduce crop yields. This then triggers a chain of events for individual farmers that can often result in desperate despair and suicide.
70 percent of rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihood.
It is an all too common story...
Climate change reduces crop yields. This dramatically reduces incomes and forces farmers to find other ways to make ends meet and to feed their families. They are forced either to take their young children out of school and send them to work, sell their daughters as child brides and or take crippling high interest loans from local loan sharks. The rural credit market is monopolized by unscrupulous money lenders charging extortionate interest rates of between 30%-100%.
All too often this vicious cycle becomes too much and many millions of farmers commit suicide leaving their wives and young children to face the wrath of the loan sharks.
Superfood Qualities
Millets are the forgotten superfood.
They are rich in protein, dietary fibre, essential fats, phytonutrients, antioxidants, tryptophan, iron, amino acids and much else.
This makes them especially good for controlling diabetes, maintaining a gluten free diet, decreasing obesity, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, prevention of cancer, ageing, improving sleep, reducing hypertension, preventing anaemia and improving skin.
POPULAR MILLET FOODS
The millet revival has sparked innovation amongst food manufacturers to create millet based alternatives for our every day foods. The USA & Europe have some way to go as interest and popularity is growing. In contrast, hundreds of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (particularly in India, China, and Nigeria) have either gone back to old staple millet foods or developed new ones to now have a high component of millet based food in their diets.
Millet Rice
Africa
Millet Roti
India
Millet Curry
India
Millet Porridge
Africa
Millet Snacks & Biscuits
India
Millet Tea
India
project sahaara
IMPACTING 1000 FARMING FAMILIES
In late 2022, with the support of a foreign donor, I launched "PROJECT SAHAARA" to transform the welfare of 1000 farming families by helping them make a successful transition to Millet farming.
Sahaara is the Hindi word for "support" or "dependence".
This 12 month program provides all of the knowledge, training, monitoring and financial support required for a successful transition to millet farming.
My team and I run regular workshops and seminars across rural townships in
conjunction with Farmer Person Organisations (FPOs), Local Government and NGOs to promote and explain the case for transitioning to Millet farming. This is the main source of recruiting small farmers.
Thereafter, the small farmer is put through our 12 month program described below.
Program in detail
Step 1 - Land Preparation
Step 2 - Financial Security
Step 2 - Financial Security
The first step for a successful transition is preparing the farmer's existing land so that it is optimal for farming Millets. This normally involves clearing, cleaning and revitalising the soil from its earlier use. Our team works with the farmer on the ground and guides them on how to achieve this.
Step 2 - Financial Security
Step 2 - Financial Security
Step 2 - Financial Security
We then agree and sign Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the farmer providing them with a 40% advance payment and guarantee to purchase all the healthy millet crop produced by them over the next 12 months. This is perhaps the most important part of the program. From the outset, the farmer and their family have absolute finacial certainty.
Step 3 - Seeding
Step 2 - Financial Security
Step 4 - Monitoring
We then help the farmers source the best quality seed and teach them the optimal method of planting the seed.
Step 4 - Monitoring
Step 7 - Final Purchase & Transport
Step 4 - Monitoring
Our team of Millet farming experts maintain an aggressive schedule of visiting each farm several bi-montly (or more often if needed) to monitor the crop, support the farmers and educate them on optimising yield and health of the crop..
Step 5 - Harvest
Step 7 - Final Purchase & Transport
Step 7 - Final Purchase & Transport
We then teach and help the farmers harvest the crop. Optimal harvesting of Millets is often an art and not a science because of multi-speed germination and variation.
Step 7 - Final Purchase & Transport
Step 7 - Final Purchase & Transport
Step 7 - Final Purchase & Transport
Once harvesting is complete, we make the final payment to the farmer and transport the crop off the land.