Sorghum or jowar is an important staple diet of millions of rural poor in the semi-arid tropics of the country. However, its consumption as direct food has been on decline during the past three decades owing to change in tastes/habits, poor status of the commodity, urbanisation, income growth and inconvenience in preparation.
Against this background of declining sorghum cultivation in the country, a renewed effort has been made by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) aided by World Bank, to create demand for dryland farmers' sorghum through diversifying its food uses (traditional roti form to ready-to-cook forms) by bringing in processing interventions. All the functions from production to consumption are integrated in this value-chain, i.e. on-farm production to consumption (end-user).
Further, as part of commercialisation of the initiative, Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR), Hyderabad, has successfully brought out shelf-worthy processed foods based on jowar after years of research and product development efforts. Six core products mentioned below are ready for full-scale launch after successful product formulation, test for nutritive properties, shelf life, stability and market research and consumer feedback on organoleptic aspects.
As part of the initiative, the brand DSR-Eatrite has already been registered and we have also completed registration of other mandatory requirements such as VAT and Barcode.
Currently DSR is marketing the following products under the brand name DSR-Eatrite: Jowar multi-grain atta; Jowar vermicelli; Jowar biscuit; Jowar suji/rawa; Jowar flakes; Jowar pasta; and Jowar roasted flakes.
These products are marketed through Heritage Fresh retail outlets and Choupal Fresh (ITC) and through unorganised retail stores in Hyderabad. DSR has evolved five formats of business plans for commercialisation of jowar products and their relative merit assessed in terms of farmer's share in the consumer rupee.
Recently DSR has signed an MoU with a multi-national Britannia (first time in the history of ICAR) to work jointly on R&D on bakery and biscuit products of Sorghum for a period of three years.
To sum it up, DSR, Hyderabad, has envisaged the reinvention of Sorghum food as health and nutrition among the target groups, especially among the diabetic, obese and school children. In all, the value realisation of all the stakeholders is assured, besides, raising net incomes of our targeted key stakeholder, i.e. poor dryland farmer, as well as ensuring the health and nutrition security of consumers. Project has sensitised policy-makers through initiation of a Government of India programme worth Rs 300 crore called INSIMP (Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millet Promotion Programme), which covers 25,000 villages in 1,000 mandals across the country.
Recently DSR has been recognised as Centre of Excellence for Sorghum processing and value addition from DAC, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Government of India under INSIMP.
