E-YUVA Centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University organized the one day Workshop cum Pitching competition entitled “Entrepreneurship Opportunities in Millets” at TNAU on 25th January 2023.
Dr. N. Senthil, Director (CPMB&B), delivered the welcome address. Dr. V. Geethalakshmi, Vice-Chancellor, TNAU, delivered the inaugural address. In her talk, she emphasized the need for creation of more number of millet entrepreneurs. She added that development of ready to eat and easy to cook millet food products should be encouraged by citing the fact that millets occupy lesser percentage in the food market. She also highlighted the positive impact millet cultivation has on the environment. Mr. S. Senthilnathan, Chairman & Managing Director, delivered the special address for the workshop. His talk highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship and the qualities to be possessed by the budding entrepreneurs.
Dr. E. Kokiladevi, Professor and Head, Department of Plant Biotechnology, CPMB&B proposed vote of thanks and briefed of the work carried out on bio fortification of food crops using bio technological tools.
The inaugural session was followed by the invited talks of three Millet entrepreneurs. Mr. J. Somasundaram, Founder, Vattam Agro & Dairy Industries, Chennai talked on the topic, ‘Starting your business with millets’. He narrated the challenges faced in each segment of millet entrepreneurship such as contract farming, seed bank, primary processing, aggregator, value-addition center, warehouse, and packaging. He also mentioned about various fund/subsidy policies that are in place to support startups. Mrs. S. Adhieswari, Co-Founder, Millet Maagic Meal, Chennai, talked on the topic ‘Millets in Today’s Food Industry’. She narrated her entrepreneurial journey. She started her millet-based foods restaurant at the age of 48 with two chefs. Now her restaurant has two branches in Chennai. She has prepared nearly 450 food recipes with millets. Mrs. K. Valaramathi, Founder, SVL Millets, Madurai, who ventured into entrepreneurship after being trained at AC & RI, Madurai also shared her experience. She started her business in 2011 with few products in the line and now she has 55 different products.
The entrepreneurial talks were followed by the idea pitching competition for the college students. About 135 teams from 33 colleges from Coimbatore and neighbouring districts registered for the competition and 106 of them participated in the preliminary screening round. Preliminary screening was held on 24.01.2023 at CPMB&B,TNAU. 16 of them were shortlisted for the final round. On the day of the workshop, the shortlisted teams presented their ideas and the best three ideas were awarded cash prizes. Dr. E. Somasundaram, Director (DABD) presided the valedictory session. The workshop was concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. L. Arul, E-YUVA, Chief Co ordinator, TNAU E-YUVA Centre.