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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The residents of the tribal village of Sambarkode in Attappadi now have a brand new millet processing unit managed by the community. Consisting of five machines – two pre-cleaning and three processing machines – the system can process several types of millet such as finger, foxtail, codo, pearl, pigeon pea and corn varieties. This helps protect the diversity and indigenous eating habits of the indigenous people.
In order to tackle the nutritional challenges of the tribal community and to secure a livelihood, the project was carried out by the Technopark-based company UST in cooperation with the NGOs Thanal and PAN India. The hamlet has also received two tillers.
Bharathan P. Ashok of the tribal community who is the program coordinator at Thanal said setting up the mill will save time and money and help protect food diversity. “The indigenous peoples used to have to travel over 14 km to neighboring Tamil Nadu to have their millet processed. Now they can save both time and money with their own mill, ”said Bharathan.
The unit, which was set up by the UST as part of its CSR initiative in the town of Agali in Attappadi, is just a few minutes’ walk from five tribal villages. It is also accessible by other modes of transport from 20 tribal villages. The five tribal villages that benefit directly from the unit include Karayoor, Bodichala, Thazhesambarkode, Melesambarkode, and Koodenchala. The unit is administered by the tribes themselves and entrusted to a team of seven tribal youth.
Thanal provided technical support for the project. Jayakumar C, a trustee at Thanal, said, “It is a community-led program. In addition, while they could grow millet, they could not use the grain for their own needs because they had to travel long distances to process it. Now that we have our own processing unit, the products are convenient to use, ”said Jayakumar.
Smita Sharma, Global Program Manager, CSR, UST said the focus is on treating the nutritional problems of indigenous peoples. “The unit ensures that the local millet that the strains produce can be processed in the hamlet and used for their needs. In addition, it reduces the drudgery of women and addresses livelihood issues, ”said Smita.
The unit, which was built in December, is awaiting approval from the Panchayat and is scheduled to go into operation in February.
