KVK, WYRA organized Skill training program on “Homestead Technologies for Nutrition Security and Income Generation” from 27.03.2023 to 29.03.2023

The rural farm women are marginal or small farmers, landless tenants and farm labourers with low-income levels. They have scanty land to cultivate with less knowledge, limited access to pioneering technologies, less capital and low credit facilities. The studies have shown that women farmers plays an important role in agricultural development of the country but are comparatively less educative than male farmers due to certain socio-economic and cultural constraints. They need more accurate, reliable and quick information along with male farmers for agricultural development as a whole. Rural women received most of the agricultural information from interpersonal and mass media sources than from trained personnel. The adoption of skill trainings in rural areas is influenced by factors like farming situation, resource availability, needs and aspirations of these women belong to different socioeconomic and cultural backdrops. Further, inadequate skill training services, high level of illiteracy among rural women, socio-cultural restrictions, low paying-capacity and lack of interest may be obstrucles for non-adoption or low adoption of different improved homestead technologies. In this context, to provide options and at the same help in income generation to farm women / rural youth, a three days skill training program on “Homestead Technologies for Nutrition Security and Income Generation” from 27.03.2023 to 29.03.2023 was organised. The skill training included on various aspects related to preparation of low-cost home-made surf, shampoo and phenyl for use at house-hold level and sale in surrounding using locally available materials. The year 2023 is declared as the “International Year of Millets” by WHO to keep the momentum of using millets in diets which is making a slow come back in India and worldwide for food and nutritional security. It was once a staple in traditional Indian cooking but fell out of favour over the years due to varied reasons and onset of green revolution. Millets are climate-resilient crops adapting to wide range of ecological conditions requiring less irrigation with better growth and productivity in low nutrient input conditions depending minimal on artificial fertilizers and vulnerability to environmental stresses. They contain high amounts of proteins, fibre, B-complex vitamins like niacin, thiamine and riboflavin, essential sulphur-containing amino acids like methionine, lecithin and little of vitamin E. They are rich in minerals like iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium also. Millets due to their nutritive value have potential health benefits to prevent many life style diseases that include cancers, decreased occurrence of cardiovascular diseases, reduced tumor proliferation, lower blood pressure, risk of heart diseases, cholesterol content, rate of fat absorption from intestines, delayed gastric emptying and increased gastrointestinal bulk. The value-addition to millet grains as ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook items offers good opportunity to farmers for enhanced income generation, promotes production and marketing leading to food security, employment and revenue generation. Hence, the participants were trained on preparation of millet based valued products like dosa, laddu, payasam, halwa, kichadi, vegetable biryani along with kabuli channa and rajma curries. These are low-cost foods possess immense health benefits. Jaggery was added to sweet items as it is a known source of iron in the diets. These simple and easy to prepare recipes can help these women to gain confidence in doing them at their house hold level and at the same time take up as an income generating activity.