PhD Studentship : Economic and Empowerment Impacts of Millet Processing and Value Addition Enterprises by Women Collectives

Project Description:

Millets are an important crop in arid and semi-arid areas in India and Africa, typically tolerant to extreme weather and could be grown with low inputs in low rainfall areas. Millets have been a staple crop for millions of farm households in India and are a highly nutritious source of food for the poor rural communities in the country. However, due to inadequate postharvest technologies for processing and value-addition and skill among the farming communities about processing technologies, millets are looked down upon as inferior or as a poor man’s food. Hence capacity building and skill up-gradation among farming communities, especially among farm women on postharvest millet processing technologies and value addition, play an important role in economic and empowerment impacts.

Historically the major constraints to women's participation in millet enterprise were the socio-cultural constraints (less value/appreciation for women’s farm work, more household responsibilities, lack of supportive services like childcare, less mobility to markets), economic constraints (credit constraints/less access to finance, low price of produce), technological constraints (lack of appropriate skills, lack of women-friendly tools, fewer training contacts, tedious postharvest operations) and others such as less extension contact for women farmers, less access to information, and lack of market information, and awareness. Traditionally, harvesting is done manually with the traditional sickle. Threshing is usually done on open threshing floors leading to high levels of contamination with foreign matter composed of stones, soil, and plant matters. This affects the quality of the grains causing problems for the processor/traders, and as a result, occasionally leads to rejection of the poor-quality grains or lower prices for the primary producers. There is also a huge amount of drudgery involved in the processing of millet. If women can get affordable access to labour-saving, drudgery-reducing technology in the postharvest stage - like threshers, graders, destoners, dehullers, and personal protective equipment, their workload could be reduced. However, the lack of investment in capacity building and enterprise development has, historically, impeded the promotion of millet enterprise. There is considerable evidence on the effects of interventions providing financial capital or training to women's groups, but little available evidence from interventions that provide enterprise development or support through product development and strengthening market linkages.

The main objective of this research is to help develop female group-based enterprises to promote millet processing and value addition, increase the demand for millet products, and assess their impacts on enterprise and empowerment outcomes. This can include;