The Indian Embassy and Inotek Foundation work together

JAKARTA – Six groups of students were awarded a total prize of IDR 5 million on Monday (20/02) after a month-long series of recipe-creating and millet-planting training. This program was conducted by the Inotek Foundation and supported by the Indian Embassy.

“Millets are grains of the future. Growing them is easy as they don’t need much water to grow. They’re also gluten-free and full of proteins. Every food type in India and Indonesia can use millet as a base for their food products,” said H.E. Manoj K. Bharti, Ambassador of India to Indonesia, as quoted on Investor Daily (21/02).

Millets are resilient multi-grains that can be grown in lands with poor soil quality or limited access to irrigation. Their versatile nature made them a staple in traditional Indian cooking and was used in porridges, as rice substitutes, or as flour for baked goods. Despite having fallen out of favor in recent years, millets have been making a slow comeback in India and across the world. To keep this momentum going, the United Nations has declared 2023 the International Year of Millets.

This declaration marks firmer support to achieve the second goal of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of 2030 – which aims to battle against malnutrition and a step forward towards greater food security.

Also present at the scene was H.E. Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism & Creative Economy. “There are a lot of Indonesian cuisines that can use millets as their base – from snacks to Bubur Sumsum, and even Mie Aceh. As 2023 is declared as the International Year of Millets, we believe that millets are resilient ingredients and are a healthy, affordable substitute for a lot of SMEs,” he said.

Over 150 students from the PINTAR Program (Pemuda INovatif, berToleransi, and Responsif) were split into 15 groups, then mentored and taught by Inotek Foundation about the in and outs of millet. To make things interesting, the fifteen groups were challenged to create Indonesian and modern cuisines using millets in a competition to win IDR 5 million total prizes. On Monday (20/02), six groups were selected as the top 6 finalists and presented awards by Minister Uno and Ambassador Bharti.

This program was also supported by Indika Foundation, Chairos, many culinary practitioners, 3sixty, and Agrinex Farm.