Women entrepreneurship in the time of pandemic

#WeMillWeWill Based on the previous experience & expertise, GRAAM established a millet-based value added food products manufacturing unit under its Social Business initiative to support the sustainable livelihood of rural women Folk at Bilikere Village of Hunsur Taluk in Mysuru district . The unit inauguration programme was held on October 30th.

Women entrepreneurship in the time of pandemic

Based on the previous experience & expertise, GRAAM established a  millet-based value added food products manufacturing unit  under its Social Business initiative to support the sustainable livelihood of rural women Folk at Bilikere Village of Hunsur Taluk in Mysuru district . The unit  inauguration programme was held on October 30th.

The  concept of the Social Business project `We Mill’ was conceptualised on the theme of empowering  Rural women. `Asare Sanjeevini Food Products’ a Food processing unit  owned by the women folk belonging to the vulnerable community has helped 14 women entrepreneurs to produce the nutritious and healthy  products  of  Ragi/Finger millets. CSIR-CFTRI has imparted technical training to these women entrepreneurs to transfer the technology.  This initiative supports women entrepreneurs and local farmers through  creating employment opportunities at the community level.

Under its CSR initiative Wurth Electronics has donated INR 45 lakhs to purchase machineries for this venture. Harsha Adya, Managing Director for Wurth Electronics who was a part of the inaugural event said, “This social business will certainly help women entrepreneurs.  We are planning to  export these value added millet products to Germany.’’ 

“CFTRI has already imparted training on handling machinery. We will also extend our support in future,’’  said Dr Shridevi Annapoorna Singh, Director , CFTRI on the occasion. 

Speaking at the event Dr Basavaraju R Shreshta, Executive Director, GRAAM said, “WE MILL is an integrated initiative to increase skilled HR, empower women and promote women's participation in the workforce. Our endeavour is to create a sustainable model for promoting pesticide-free, low water-based, natural farming by providing local farmers with local markets. Overall, we aim to increase rural wealth. GRAAM believes that when all four organizations of development - government, citizens, corporate and civil society - are working together, we can effectively achieve development goals. We are trying a combination model in the WE MILL project’’.

Arjun Ranga, Managing Director, N R Groups, Gayathri Devi president for the Federation of Women Self Help Groups , GRAAM officials, the women entrepreneurs, Bilikere village citizens and many other stakeholders were also present on the occasion. 

Value added products of small seeds with greater health benefits (Finger Millet/Ragi) i.e. Shishu Poshan, Ragi Malt, Ragi ball mix, Ragi powder has been introduced under the  WE MILL brand.

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