When we are out for a vacation, we visit various tourist places. What makes these places ‘tourist places’? It is the heritage of a place that makes it a tourist place. Heritage is anything valued by people today that wasn’t valued by previous generations. It includes land, nature, monuments, customs, traditions, belief and most importantly ….. food.
What is food heritage? Food heritage is term that encompasses the origins of plants and animals and their sites where people first cultivated plants and domestic animals, as well as the earliest locations around the world where people first processed, prepared, sold and ate food. These locations include farms, all types of mills, markets and groceries, hotels, inns, dairies, orchards and vineyards.
Food heritage differs according to the locations, climate and culture of an area. We find that sushi is a part of food heritage for Japanese whereas Chow Mein is part of food heritage for China. The differences and the diversity in food Heritage in a region is mainly influenced by the culture.
Of all the food Heritage that is found across the world, we are bound to find that Indian food heritage is the most diverse one. In the four different directions of our country we find that not only the dishes vary but the crops taken, style of cooking, utensils, all vary. When will look at crop variability these days, we normally associate wheat with the north and rice with the south. But are we missing something?
The history of food in India will be left incomplete without giving due importance to millets. Millets have been one of one of the most important cereals in India since ancient times. A shloka written by the great physician, Vaagbhatt numerates various types of millets as grass crops which signifies that they were cultivated at that time. The mention of millets in various Ayurvedic texts is the evidence that millets were also used as medicines. Also, variety of millets where found in excavation in Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro which gives us the firmest evidence than any other resource code offer. Millets were an integral part of our Indian lifestyle and were consumed daily. But now, do we eat bhakri even once in a day? No, it’s normally eaten when we go for ‘nature trips’ or ‘farm houses’. What we normally eat is wheat chapatti or wheat or Maida breads and pizza bases.
“But why should we eat Bhakri or any other indigenous food? What so special about them?” is the counter statement that most of the youngsters would like to give. The special thing about any individual is food species is that they have naturally adapted to the climate of that specific region just as our bodies have. Thus they pack the right mix of nutrients for us and millets are no exception to this. Also it is a part of our duty towards our nation, that we preserve our heritage including our food heritage.
As I explore healthier lifestyle of humans, I realise that some of the most beautiful practices have been left behind. And for working towards a better future, we would need to reclaim some of these values. Millets provide us an interesting case study.
Even until 50 years ago millets were one of the major grains grown in India. From a staple food and integral part of local food cultures millets just like many other things have come to be looked down upon by modern urban consumers as ‘coarse grains’ and exchanged for a more ‘refined’ diet. Unfortunately, refined diet lacks the nutrients critically important for us.
The millets not only are a rich sources of carbohydrates like the other cereals, they also have various types of minerals, vitamins present in them. For example, Nachani is highly rich in calcium (3.40 g per 100 g), Bajra is a rich source of iron, and Rala is a rich source of vitamin E (31 mg per 100g) gram as well as proteins and calcium. Also, all millets are gluten free.
In classical Ayurvedic texts like Charak Samhita and Sushruta Samhita, millets mentioned as kudhanya and trindhanya are advocated in diet (Pathya) as well as therapeutics. It is said to have Madhur taste and Madhur Vipak and hot potency, dry and light in quality, thus, making it easy to digest.
Not only are millets beneficial for health but are also a support for farmers in the current state of low rainfall as well as can be cultivated in semi-arid and arid regions because of their tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses and their substantial yield in low quality plants with minimal input. Millets are generally thermophilic and xerophilic.
Millets are of two types: minor millets and major millets. Sorghum (Jowar), Pearl millet (Bajra), Finger millet (Nachni) are included under major millets, whereas Foxtail millet (Rala), Proso millet (Varai), Little millet (Sava), Barnyard millet (Bhadli), Kodo millet come under minor millet.
Never having heard of Rala in spite of it being indigenous to India, I chose to study it and took it as my topic for my Action Research Project.
Rala being indigenous India, is cultivated in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in negligible amount. In Maharashtra, only a very few farmers grow it, that to for their own consumption in districts of Satara, Aurangabad and Beed.
On further browsing, I came to know about its numerous health benefits. It aids most of the modern day chronic diseases like diabetes, blood cholesterol, heart diseases etc. and is full of various essential nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, vitamin E, vitamin B1, B2, B3, dietary fibres, iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus.
Not only this, it is also a farmer friendly crop. It does not require tilling nor pesticides and fertilizers. It has fast ripening mechanism and a high photosynthetic efficiency. Hence, it is perfectly suited to be used as a catch crop. Also, it can be cultivated in poor quality soil and over a wide range of temperature from 16° Celsius to 26° Celsius and temperature tolerance from 5° Celsius to 32°. Also, the rainfall requirement is less and can be cultivated in rainfall from 50 cm to 90 cm.
Perhaps, because of all this benefits, Rala came to be known as Devdhanya along with other millets like Sava, Nagali etc. Unfortunately, people have forgotten about Rala.
Through my work on the topic ‘ Rala – A Forgotten Devdhanya’, I am trying to make people and also farmers aware about its benefits and bring it in limelight once again.
Rutuja's Project on Foxtail Millet (Rala) 