SCALING UP SMALL MILLET POST
HARVEST AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD PRODUCTS
(UTOPIA MILLET
MISSION).
UTOPIA WORLD OF NEIGBOURS benefited from MCGinnity Family Foundation COVID Relief Grant which was used to implement a project titled ‘SCALING UP SMALL MILLET POST HARVEST AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD PRODUCTS’’ (UTOPIA MILLET MISSION) the support received through Enventure Enterprise.
The project responded to the adverse consequences of climate change present a real and present risk to nutrition and food insecurity, impacting vulnerable communities and livelihoods dependent on agriculture due to rising temperatures, floods, droughts, and other extreme weather phenomena. Adaptation through income diversification, resilient varieties, and less water-intensive crops is needed among other strategies to secure the food and nutrition security of millions of vulnerable populations, especially smallholder farmers. It’s in this context, millets are being championed as the crops of the future and a ‘climate-smart crop’, contributing to sustainable food systems, advancing food and nutrition security, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 2.
A lack of dietary diversity has contributed to malnutrition and a prevalence of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes in many villages of Kyenjojo district and Uganda at large. One solution is small millet, a gluten-free “super-food” that is also climate resilient. However, both the production and consumption of small millet is low, mainly due to a weak supply chain, poor consumer awareness, poor yields, inadequate or inefficient processing facilities, and policy neglect when compared to crops such as rice. High drudgery in manual processing of small millet has contributed to the fast decline in their consumption in regions where millets are produced.
UTOPAI women members are
millet farmers and have previously been dealing millet farming and trade
individually and now they would like to collectively join the millet value
addition chain utilizing the standardized small millet processing machines for
different market sizes and appealing millet food products. Translating these
innovations into sustained change required overcoming failings in the value
change and supportive government policies.
Our goal:
To scale up small millet post-harvest
and nutritious food products working closely with female-friendly equipment’s
and value chain solutions to drive production and consumption of healthy
millet.
Objectives:
1.
To boost the production of the nutrient-rich millets
2.
To stock from member UTOPIA and community millet
farmers, process, brand and package millet flour for millet bread and porridge.
3.
To tackle malnutrition by introducing millet in the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other community nutrition schemes like in Integrated
Child Development
Services (ICDS).
4.
To generate revenue for UTOPIA sustainability
through fundamentally scaling up Millet processing venture beyond the project
end-line.
5.
To create Job opportunities for unemployed
single mothers who will be working in processing, packaging and marketing
sectors of the project.
Achievements
1 millet equipment
manufactured for small millet processing unit and installed in Kyenjojo district.
l 1,015 Kilograms of processed
millet produced and supplied to over 284 consumers per week.
l 1,105 kilograms of value-added
food products, reaching 284 additional consumers per month.
l Increased the capacity of end
5 users to operate processing equipment: 133 village level small scale millet
farmers.
l 6 New partners joining UTOPIA
to expand market for ready-to-eat small millet products; 30 of the
food enterprises increased sales by more than 15% and 8 expanded sales
outside the Kyenjojo district.
l Rural women farmers often poor
entrepreneurs (mostly women) who primarily serve poor areas, are selling
hygienic millet porridge and other millet products to about 110 persons each
day
l Increased the capacity of 12
VSLA to promote the reach of small millet food products among their
members; 1,490 persons, mainly women, farmers and school children, will be
educated about the health benefits of small millets through 14 local and
district-level promotional events and 3 exhibitions.
l More than 2,000 people learned
about the value of small millets through programs aired on community
radio, local TV, and text audio messages.
The project boosted awareness
of the importance of small millets among consumers, producers, and
policymakers. The project introduced small millets in public food
programs in Kyenjojo district and beyond and there are many opportunities for
scale up as our village millet farming model has proven into an organized
UTOPIA small millet initiative to scale up technologies and practices and to
ensure institutional continuity of these partnerships and working
relationships. UTOPIA is working closely with other partners also exploring and
applying lessons learned from the project to other neglected pulses and
oil seeds and we are exploring exportation market opportunities for small millet
beyond Kyenjojo, Uganda.
Sponsored by. Enventure
