This is the third entry in a collection of field commentaries by FOLU India.
Uttarakhand, nestled in the eastern-most part of the western Himalayas is endowed with climatic variation and high rainfall. Enriching it with a sumptuous diversity of flora and fauna. Traditionally, the local farmers have grown diverse crops such as coarse cereals (minor millets-finger millet, barnyard millet, foxtail millet, little millet, proso millet), grains like rice, wheat, barley, pulses (such as horse gram, black gram, black seeded local soybean, lentil, cowpea, rice bean), oilseeds (mustard, sesame). Several underutilised crops like amaranth, buckwheat, tubers, yams, cucurbits, minor leafy vegetables, perilla and numerous medicinal herbs are also grown here.
This mix of grains, green leafy vegetables, fruits and seeds, enrich the diet with calcium, iron and many more micro-nutrients which are otherwise missing in a regular urban diet. A group of these hardy cereals are even referred to as ‘nutri-cereals’. Many of these are abundantly found in the forests of the state. However, a lack of awareness around them has limited the farming community from reaping the benefits of these crops.
Project SAHELEE (Striving for Advancement in Health and Improved Quality of Life through Entrepreneurship and Education) in Uttarakhand, as part of Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU) efforts in India, is an initiative to promote the production and consumption of traditional grains by local communities of Mukteshwar.
Steeped in the local culinary culture and ingredients, project SAHELEE and FOLU India endeavour to build nutrition security for the local population, as well as promote the cultivation of hardy crops rich in nutrients. It has been noted that some food groups outrank others with their nutritional benefits. Therefore, one of the objectives of SAHELEE is to create awareness within communities on planting and procuring food crops that are the healthiest. For instance, we would like them to choose amaranth seeds over other grains, ragi over rice, carrots over potatoes, and inexpensive berries to boost the nutrient content of their food basket. This is an important adaptation measure in the face of climate change, as these crops require low resource input for cultivation and can bear rough weather conditions.
By increasing community awareness about the nutritional value of these food items and their direct impact on improved health, we aim to increase the demand for healthier and sustainable food products. As part of this initiative, field teams led by TERI, a FOLU India core partner, are in the process of developing new and exciting nutritious food products. These include ragi granola bars which incorporate local tastes and flavours for effortless local acceptability in their diets. This would help to expand the range of healthier choices available within the local population.
Each of these products are to go through a rigorous process of lab testing and food safety certifications before being cleared for local manufacturing. The next step would be to enable women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in the area to develop these products. SHG members would be trained on the nutritional value of the ingredients, the process for creating each of the identified food items, and packaging them.
To create long-term impact, we will work closely with women farmers and SHGs to develop products that are processed at scale and marketed locally to boost the incomes of the farming community even during the non-farming season. They will be trained to use solar energy for production techniques, thereby negating any possible adverse impacts on local air quality and reducing the carbon footprint of their finished products.
One of the goals of SAHELEE is also to mainstream the intake of these fortified products through the school feeding programme. Given that one out of two children is anaemic and one in five is undernourished, as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) report of Uttarakhand, the incorporation of these local superfoods can help address the nutritional adversity of the state’s young population.
This would also provide a market entry point for women entrepreneurs associated with the activity. In the long run, the project will enable gender mainstreaming by placing women in job roles beyond the traditional on-farm cultivating ones, usually taken up by women.
Photo credit: Vidhu Gupta
Authors: Meena Sehgal, Fmr Senior Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Vidhu Gupta, Fmr Associate Fellow, TERI. TERI is a FOLU India core partner
To know more about FOLU India’s efforts to promote resilient & healthy diets, read the full compilation of field commentaries here.
