Promoting Millets as the Healthy Choice of Life

Soulfull, launched by Kottaram Agro Foods, mainly targets those who believe in healthy and simple life choices and are willing to try it out.

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Prashant Parameswaran, MD of Kottaram Agro Foods, is on a short market visit to Kochi and hard pressed for time. Yet, when we start discussing ‘Soulfull’, time is the last thing on his mind. This is what he always wanted to do and it shows. “World across there is a movement towards ancient grains. As the world progressed, a food cluster got formed and people tried to pick up the commercialised grains – rice, wheat and corn. But it is scary to see nutritional diversity being limited to these three,’’ argues Prashant. “We need to popularise millets on a mass scale.’’

Prashant should know as years of in-depth research with organisations like Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR) and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) went into his company launching millet based breakfast cereals under the brand name ‘Soulfull’, three years ago.

Millets are gaining prominence globally as they offer nations nutritional security like no other. Calcium in ragi, for example, is 10 times more than in any other grain. There is also a great amount of fibre in millets. It uses one tenth of water compared to paddy for cultivation and barely needs fertilizers.