Empowering villages the CFTRI way

Puttegowdanahundi, an agrarian village around 25 km from Mysuru city, is being empowered by CSIR-CFTRI under the rural development programme.

Initially, doctoral students of the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) interacted with the locals and devised a strategy for intervention with participation of self-help groups (SHG), farmers’ groups and teachers of the government upper primary school and anganwadi centre of the village. Farmers of the village were educated on new super food crops quinoa and chia.

Useful agrarian practices were shared with farmers for growing these crops successfully. CSIR-CFTRI had earlier facilitated a sustainable model for chia cultivation in Mysuru region.

The institute was willing to bring these farmers also under this arrangement. Practically, there was no organised post-harvest processing in the village.

A few housewives were making papads at their home and selling it locally. The institute established a papad manufacturing unit and training was arranged to two of the SHG members in the institute. A leg-operated papad-making machine (CFTRI design) and dough-mixing machine were bought from machinery suppliers.

A function was held at Puttegowdanahundi recently in which the machines were handed over to the SHGs by Ram Rajasekharan, Director, CSIR-CFTRI.

Also, water filtration units, developed by CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, were handed over to representatives. The school was provided with laptops and an adulteration test kit to create awareness on food safety.