As part of the International Year of Millets, an awareness rally, ‘Namath Theevanaga’ (our food), and an exhibition of millets were held at the Collectorate compound here on Wednesday.
District panchayat president P.K. Davis inaugurated the programme, which was flagged off by District Collector V.R. Krishna Teja.
Attappady Integrated Tribal Development Project with the support of Kudumbashree Mission organised the programme.
Millets could play a key role in developing a healthy lifestyle, Mr. Davis said. They could help in preventing lifestyle diseases and compensate for deficiency in nutrition, he added.
‘Namath Theevanaga’ is a State-level rally to create awareness about the importance of the millets. The rally also aimed at promoting millets produced and marketed by tribal communities in Attappady.
The exhibition had special tribal food items prepared with special ingredients collected from the forest by the tribal people in Attappady. Various millets and their value-added products were available at the exhibition.
A seminar on farming methods of millets was led by Dr. E.R. Aneena of Krishi Vighyan Kendra, Mannuthy. Attappady Special Project (Livelihood ) coordinator K.P. Karunakaran spoke about the importance of millets.
