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Nuts about grains
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Timbuktu Collective packs a punch with millets and peanuts
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Pearl millet, white millet and foxtail millet do not greet us from the shelves of supermarkets unlike rice, wheat, oats, ragi or the packs of mixed cereals in the form of muesli. Forget recognising the varieties of millets (korra i
n Telugu and tinnai in Tamil), most of us would be waking up to the fact that millet semolina is different from millet rice. These millet packets are a result of organic farming in The Timbuktu Collective, a village tucked away in Anantapur.
Named aptly to denote the existence of this village in the midst of nowhere in the drought-prone region, The Timbuktu Collective was formed by volunteers Bablu Ganguly and his wife Mary in 1990. Today, a number of organisations working in the rural sector source products from these farmers and make them available to urban consumers. “Timbuktu is into organic farming; the farmers took to millet farming suitable for the dry weather. Dastkar Andhra has been part of some of their livelihood programmes. We came across their millet produce while interacting with them and ever since, have been stocking their packets of food grains at Dastkar exhibitions,” says Vaneeta Bhattacharya of Daaram. The store stocks packets of organic pearl, white, foxtail and finger millets. Timbuktu Organic also sells peanuts, a dominating crop of the region. The farmers have traditionally been cultivating peanuts and took to millets to break mono cropping.
For now, organic millets and peanuts are up for urban consumption. In the pipeline is a proposal to bring out recipe books with traditional millet dishes. Most millets are similar to wheat in protein content and rich in Vitamin B.
SANGEETHA DEVI DUNDOO
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