Indian Journal of Economics and Development
  • Year: 2017
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 1

Reinventing the Commercialization of Sorghum as Health and Convenient Foods: Issues and Challenges

1ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad-500 030

2Symbiosis Institute of International Business

3NAARM, Hyderabad-500 030

*Corresponding author's email: dayakar@millets.res.in

JELCodes: Q10, Q11, Q13

Abstract

Sorghum is the most important millet among all in terms of its cropped area and food use. Sorghum plays a crucial role in rural food security in semi-arid tropics for the world. In the initial years, millet were the part of staple food in India. Unfortunately, slowly the contribution of millets in nutritional security of India decreased. Importance of sorghum in meeting the nutritional security of India has been realised by several organisation and various efforts were taken to promote sorghum based products. Among various issues and challenges faced in promoting sorghum based products, one of the major problem remains is marketing issues. There are enough opportunities for value addition in Sorghum. Seasonality and lack of awareness of health benefits of Sorghum has been identified as one of the major problems in commercialisation of sorghum and Sorghum based products.

Keywords

Commercialization, health food, marketing, sorghum, strategies