Know Millets Webinars 2020, Session # 08

Intro to Mechanized Processing of millets – scale, machines & skill requirements

Monday, May 25th 2020. 3 PM to 4 PM (Indian Std Time)

The drudgery in manual processing of the husked millet grains to their edible forms has been one of the significant reasons for the decline in millet consumption. Machines that can be used to process husked millets are available. The steps and operations in processing millet grains are very similar to processing other husked cereal grains. But because of their size and some of their other characteristics, millet processing using machines poses a relatively bigger challenge. We shall identify the important factors that would help us identify the most appropriate scale of operations for a millet processing unit. We shall also try to identify the skill sets required from both managers and personnel operating the machines to successfully process husked millet grains.

In this session, we shall try to communicate the basic steps in mechanized processing of millet grains and some pointers to help individuals and organizations make better informed decisions when looking to set up mechanized millet processing units.

Anchor/Moderator: Mr. M. Karthikeyan,

Mr. M. Karthikeyan, a postgraduate in Agricultural Economics, has been engaged in grassroots initiatives on rainfed farming development, revalorizing millet-based food systems, building organisations of poor farmers & women, and community banking for the past 24 years. He is
associated with DHAN Foundation, a pan-Indian development NGO in India, where in he co-founded Rainfed Farming Development Program, and served as Indian lead Principal Investigator for two international action research projects on small millets and as Chief Executive of Small Millet Foundation. Since 2011, he has been engaged with promoting small
millets with a focus on (i) identification and wider dissemination of location specific farmers’ preferred varieties and production practices, (ii) development and commercialization of appropriate processing equipment, (iii) commercialization of appealing millet-based food products (iv) promotion of household consumption, and (v) policy advocacy.

Speaker: Dr. Dwiji Guru

Dwiji is a serial entrepreneur, technology developer, researcher, and advocate for sustainable food systems. Dwiji consult for and work with various stakeholders – from farmers to consumers – on dry land farming, processing, specializing in various aspects of millets spanning a broad spectrum from cultivation practices, processing, cooking to nutrition.

Participate in the webinar

Please register by filling out this form.

Please note that registration closes at 10 AM of the day of the webinar. In case you are reading this after the registration closed, you can still participate by joining us on the YouTube Livestream.

We request all registrants to please check their email for the link to join the webinar session. Do join the webinar early – we have had an overwhelming response with 530+ registrations so far. The webinar technology platform license allows for limited attendees only. So in case you receive a message that the webinar is full, please join us through the YouTube livestream (details below). Volunteers shall be the watching the Q&A section of the webinar platform and the comments section of YouTube Livestream and relaying questions and comments to the moderator and speaker.

Discuss

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View Livestream, recordings

The sessions shall be Live streamed on YouTube. Please visit (and subscribe to !) the RRA network YouTube channel. Recordings of completed sessions are also posted there.

Previous sessions in KMW 2020

• May 4th – Community centric approach – cultivation, processing, consumption
• May 7th – Cooking Characteristics & insights on millet dishes
• May 10th – Millets and Agro-bio, food, and nutritional diversity – past, present and future
• May 13th – Millet Processing – Principles, Techniques and Challenges
• May 16th – Grain characteristics- structural, nutritional & storage
• May 19th –  The ecological and cultural value of millets – who grew and continue to; how and why do they continue
• May 22nd – Millet cultivation – choice of crop and seeds, practices to improve quality of crop, perspectives of yield and productivity