Millet Bank, Hyderabad-Based Startup Features in NITI Aayog’s '75 Agri Entrepreneurs & Innovators'

Millet Bank collaborates with millet farmers and micro processing units to develop, brand, and market millet-based products. Millet Bank's product portfolio includes both ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-cook (RTC) items.

Millet Bank has assisted over 500 farmers and rural entrepreneurs in post-harvesting and food processing in less than 18 months since its inception.

The goal was to encourage the consumption of nutritious millets among urban residents, particularly youth and children. Apart from that, the onus was on Millet Bank founder Vishala Reddy Vuyyala to assist farmers in expanding their cultivation of various millets and creating a sustainable ecosystem.

"There are many companies, which produce millet based products and want farmers to produce millets extensively. But the need of the hour was an integrated value chain and e-commerce platform, which we are working on," Vishala Reddy said.

As part of the millet promotion, the startup was now providing gift hampers for weddings, social gatherings, corporate programmes, business events, and institutions in order to assist farmers and rural artisans. According to her, these gift baskets include nutritious millet-based food, farm crafts, sustainable cutlery, spices, Ayurvedic products, and other items.

Millet Bank is collaborating with Cherial artisans from Telangana, as well as many others from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, and other states, on this initiative. 15,000 baskets have already been delivered at various events.

"The idea was to promote wealth distribution. When a person purchases a gift from a store or an e-commerce portal, one company benefits. However, if a person purchases an Rs.1000 gift hamper, approximately eight artisans and farmers benefit," she explained.

The compendium was created by NITI Aayog as part of the 'Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' to honour 75 Agri Entrepreneurs and Innovators who are working to revolutionize agriculture and allied sectors through innovative and transformative ideas. Agriculture (44), horticulture (8), dairy (3), animal husbandry (5), fisheries (6), and others (9) were among the organizations and startups chosen, according to NITI Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer in his note in the compendium.