Community production centre inaugurated by DDS

In an effort to increase the supply of the millet-based nutritious ready-to-eat (RTE) and ready-to-cook (RTC) foods, a community production centre has been opened by the Deccan Development Society here.

The DDS has helped train 150 persons in preparing ready to cook and ready to eat foods and a team of 10 have been entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the food at the facility, that was inaugurated by District Collector Manickaraj Kannan here on Tuesday in the presence of DDS director P. V. Sateesh and MANAGE Director Umarani. The DDS provided machinery to prepare the different powders and to pack the ready to eat foods. The community is also producing chilly-mix powders.

Limited varieties

The women have taken up production of 14 varieties of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook foods though they have identified as many as 52 varieties. The 14 varieties being manufactured include jowar kichidi, foxtail kichidi, jowar-horsegram soup mix, Ragi laddu, jowar laddu, korra laddu, traditional foods like appalu, jowar and foxtail papads. The women have been able to notch up a turnover of ₹40,000 per month from sales of ready-to-eat through outlets like Cafe Ethnic at Zaheerabad, weekly sales from a van at Sangareddy Collectorate, an outlet at Hyderabad and in collaboration with a NGO working in Tellapur — Disah. With the new machinery and adding ready-to-cook foods the women expect to achieve a sales turnover of ₹1.5 lakh per month.

Good response

The organisers had even conducted a survey about the marketability of the products at Kukatpally and they received a good response.

“We have just opened this facility and will wait for one month to see the public response. We hope that we will have a good demand from the market,” food scientist at DDS Krishi Vignana Kendra G. Bhargavi said.

First published by The Hindu