Visakhapatnam: As millets gain popularity as healthy foods and become a natural choice for the health-conscious people, VIKASA with the financial help of NABARD, has opened a millets processing hub at Sagaram area under V Madugula mandal in Vizag on Monday. DHAN foundation has provided a Dehuller to VIKASA to be set up in this complex. All machines required for grading, destoning and dehulling are established in this complex to process 4 to 5 quintals of millets a day.
This unit is expected to support the millet marketing needs of 3500 tribal farmers. Besides, VIKASA plans to encourage millet production in the plains (Chodavaram, Madugula and Ravikamatam) in the dryland areas by encouraging farmers to adopt productivity enhancement techniques. These techniques include GULI method of cultivation, bring in better varieties in millet crops like finger millet, foxtail millet, biofortified sorghum and bajra crops.
