Dosa with five varieties of millets and payasams cooked with millets are just two artisanal foods on the menu of Millet Cafe at Pudur in Attappady taluk, Palakkad district. The four-month old cafe, run by three tribal women, serves a variety of millet-based dishes.
The cafe is one of the many initiatives of Kudumbashree (the State Poverty Eradication Mission of Kerala Government) to promote millet cultivation. Kudumbashree is also involved in the manufacture of value-added products from millets in Attappady, which has, for long, been the millet capital of Kerala, thanks to its tribal population. Kudumbashree has its own brand, Hill Value, to market farm and forest produce cultivated by the tribals and the Millet Cafe is their latest addition (see box).
The success of millet farming in Attappady has motivated other districts in Kerala such as Alappuzha. Last year, Cherthala South panchayat in the district, cultivated ragi (finger millet) on over 250 acres spread across 22 wards. It was perhaps the first time that a millet variety was grown on such a large scale in south Kerala.
