Bhubaneswar: Hotels will improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers and women self-help groups by promoting millets. They can play role of catalyst and harbinger of change in the discourse around millets and palate of urban consumers, stated Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, during a consultative meeting with Hotel and Restaurant Association (HRAO) organised by Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) on Monday to brainstorm and devise a strategy for promotion of millets.
Representatives from Swosti Premium, Food Junction, The New Marion, Pal Heights, Swosti Grand, Hotel Excellency, Barjorjis Hotels, Suryansh Hotels and others from HRAO participated in the meeting. In addition, the meeting saw participation from FICCI, Tourism Department and other departmental officials.
Prem Chandra Chaudhury, Director, Agriculture & Food Production suggested that millet food festivals can be organised in collaboration with HRAO members. Millet snacks can be placed in the hotel rooms. Information brochures on advantages of millets can be placed in the rooms of the guests. Video clips and standees can also be placed in the hotels to create more awareness among the guests. He said that millets are a future food and is hope for many lifestyle diseases. Market for millets is growing day by day. OMM is also engaging with doctors, dieticians and others to create more awareness about millets.
Dr Joanna Kane Potaka, Deputy Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRR), who previously led the Smart Food Initiative on millets expressed her happiness on the comprehensive interventions on millets. She suggested that simple communication tools should be developed and displayed in the different places in hotels. She also suggested organising workshops with Chefs to bring them on board for promotion of millets.
Representatives of HRAO made many suggestions for scaling up millet promotion through hotels/restaurants. They suggested that a framework and standard operating protocols for preparation of millet recipes should be developed for reference of hotels. This will help hotels to standardise their products more effectively. A recipe bank for traditional and modern millet recipes should be prepared and shared widely. In addition, massive awareness campaigns on health benefits of millets can be taken by the Government. HRAO said that they are interested to engage with OMM to streamline the supply chain of millets.
Milind Gupta, Food Junction & Secretary General, HRAO shared that they have been engaging with OMM for last one year. HRAO members have actively participated in millet session of Make in Odisha and promoted millets actively during the Hockey World Cup. K.K.Rao, Executive Secretary, HRAO shared that hotels such as ITC have already started special millet buffet for special occasions. Things will improve once the demand increases among the consumers. He said that many hotels have already started serving millet recipes in pilot basis. Hariom Kumar, F&B Manager, Swosti Premium shared that they are including the millet-based bakery products in their hotel. Atish Kumar Baral F&B Manager, Swosti Grand shared they have also included Ragi upma in pilot basis in few locations and response has been very good.
Representative from Tourism Department shared that they have already included millet menu in OTDC hotels and are keen to scale up the millet promotion through their department. In addition, millet standees have been placed in all the hotels of OTDC. Promotion of millets shall also be taken up in eco-retreat locations, tourist destinations, etc. Tourism department is also keen to collaborate in promotion and branding of millets through the regular tourism promotional activities of the department.
Padhee shared that on the occasion of ‘Millet Day’ on November 10, Department of Agriculture is planning to organise an international convention on millets in Bhubaneswar. He requested HRAO to actively participate in the convention and encourage their members to promote millets in their hotels in a massive way. He stressed again that HRAO is a very important member and stakeholder of Odisha Millets Mission.
HRAO shared that they are very excited to collaborate with the OMM. They will actively promote millets and will work with OMM on developing bigger product range. A detail action plan will be developed in collaboration with HRAO to promote millets in mission mode.
