Scores of women prepared mouth-watering dishes at a function to mark the observance of International Day of Rural Women organised jointly by Pesticides Action Network — Asia Pacific and Kudumbam, both non-governmental organisations and Social Welfare Department of Bharathidasan University here on Thursday.
The dishes were prepared using varagu , cumbu , samai , kuthiraivali, so on and so forth, to mark the “Minor millets food festival”.
Soups using “manathakkali” and drumstick leaves, kuthiraivali sambar, samai curd, varagu biriyani, and kollu sundal were the dishes prepared on the spot.
The festival aimed at popularising conventional dishes which ensured health for people in the present-day lifestyle, said Pangayavalli, Deputy Director of Kudumbam.
She said that the programme was organised on the Khajamalai campus of the university to sensitise women students to the importance of conventional millets and minor millets, not usually found at many homes.
Oswald Quintal, Director, who inaugurated the festival, said the minor millets used for preparing the dishes, were produced by bio-farmer members of Kudumbam.
V. Sethuramalingam, Assistant Professor, and N. Rajavel, Professor and Head of Department of Social Welfare, said the festival aimed at patronising the minor millet growers who toiled hard in raising the crops utilising the available water in the rain-fed areas.
