Hyderabad entrepreneur’s project Decode Millet to engage a million corporate employees

Decode Millet project by Vishala Reddy Vuyyala aims to promote millet consumption among corporate employees in eight cities.

Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Vishala Reddy Vuyyala has announced Decode Millet, a 16-month project that aims to connect with a million corporate sector employees in eight cities. Through presentations, fun cooking sessions and pop-ups, she hopes to motivate more people to shed their resistance to consuming millets. “The year 2023, observed as the International Year of Millets, saw the active participation of start-ups and micro-processing units, which benefited everyone in the value chain including farmers and producer organisations. There is a need to sustain the momentum for at least five years to ensure continuous consumer engagement,” says Vishala, who founded Millet Bank and Minkan Agro Industries Pvt Ltd (with Priyanka Barathwaj).

Decode Millet plans to reach employees of 150 corporate houses in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. “There have been focussed studies on the health risks faced by the corporate sector, especially the IT sector, owing to their lifestyles and we believe that consuming millets can help promote better health. I discovered that a leading IT campus has nearly 80,000 employees. So this is an ideal sector to take the millet discourse forward,” says Vishala, adding that the first step is to try and remove the notion that millets are not tasty.

Vishala’s journey into the millet business began during the lockdown. Millets, however, are not new territory. She grew up in the agrarian belt of Kuppam in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. “This drought-prone belt of Rayalaseema has been traditionally conducive to growing ragi (finger millet), jowar (sorghum), samalu (little millet) and arikelu (kodo millet), with pulses and nuts from which oil is extracted. I have witnessed the seeding-to-feeding process.” 

In 2020, when Vishala visited her sister, who was growing a small patch of millets, she was surprised to learn that a kilogram of grains was being sold to traders at ₹15. “Growing and harvesting millets is a labour-intensive process and such small returns did not make sense.” 

Vishala also observed that unlike a few decades ago, several farmers in the villages and tribal regions had moved away from growing and consuming millets. She was aware of the efforts of MCV Prasad (who established Prakruthivanam) and food scientist Khader Vali, who actively continue to promote cultivation and consumption of millets, and wanted to do her bit. She makes a case for millets by stating, “Internationally, the growing rates of obesity and micronutrient-deficiency prompted several countries to think of traditional grains. There is also the challenge of feeding an ever-increasing population. Rice and wheat rely heavily on water while millets are easier to grow on arid land.”

When Vishala began doing the groundwork for a millet start-up, it brought back childhood memories. “Farming and traditional crafts went hand in hand; craftspeople periodically made bamboo baskets and the chaata (winnowing basket) before they were replaced with plastic ones. Along with millet products, I also wanted a line of traditional crafts.” 

Before discussing millets and crafts further, Vishala shares anecdotes from childhood, which involved travelling extra miles for primary education. “I was the first girl in our village to complete school and college.” Being the sister of a sarpanch helped, to an extent, to rise above gender restrictions. “Our village had one government primary school and it admitted only boys. So I would walk to the co-education school at the mandal headquarters, five kilometres away. In Class X, they let me ride a bicycle.”