Nutrihub unveils millet look-alike rice to boost millet consumption

The initiative millets look-alike rice aims to transform millets into rice-shaped grains to enhance their acceptance among those accustomed to traditional rice consumption

Revealing a groundbreaking innovation in millet research during an interactive session with women entrepreneurs at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) in Hyderabad, Dr B. Dayakar Rao, CEO of Nutrihub, highlighted that soon Rice shaped millets will change the food habits of people driving them towards a healthy diet as innovation and research has come out with promising results. The initiative, named “Millets Look-Alike Rice,” aims to transform millets into rice-shaped grains to enhance their acceptance among those accustomed to traditional rice consumption.

Dr Rao explained that this inventive approach addresses the challenge of converting non-millet eaters into millet consumers. By offering millets in the familiar form of rice, the acceptability of these ancient grains is expected to increase. He emphasised that the process involves reconstituting millets into rice without any genetic modification, retaining all the nutritional properties of millets except their shape.

On the commercial front, IIMR’s Nutrihub TBISC, supported by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, has been instrumental in incubating over 400 startups in the nutri-cereals sector, raising significant capital and developing 70 technologies.

Dr Tara Satyavathi, Director of ICAR-IIMR, emphasized the institution’s mission to shift from food security to nutrition security through millets, dispelling the stigma of millets as food for the less privileged. She informed us about the participation of over 500 startups in the millet value chain, with IIMR having incubated 250 startups under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.

Ritu Shah, Chairperson of FLO, expressed the organization’s interest in exploring business opportunities in the millet sector during the International Year of Millets, aligning with the tour’s purpose to engage with and learn from the millet research initiatives at IIMR.