You can know the importance of something only if you have suffered its deficiency. Who has felt the lack of money? Today we have the story of a man who understood the importance of hunger when he could not find anything to eat in an unknown city. After realizing the hunger of this hunger, he did something that today people salute him. So let’s know How did he himself live after battling hunger Gave a new twist and achieved success:
After all who is this ‘Millet Man’?
Now-a-days, in front of various types of marketing and consumption, the consumption of many major crops of our country has come down considerably than before. Its disadvantage is not only to the farmers who grow these crops, but also to the people who eat them. In such a situation, people like Veer Shetty Biradar are not only spreading awareness about such nutritious crops among others. Rather, the food items prepared from these countries are also reaching abroad.
Due to this, both farmers and food people who grow crops are getting equal benefits. Veer Shetty is a resident of Gangapur village in Sangareddy district of Telangana. Veer Shetty is the eldest of three brothers. After passing the 10th, household responsibilities fell on his shoulders. Veer Shetty also worked as a driver to run his home.
Along with work, he also continued his studies and completed his B.A. By the way, Veer Shetty was not a very rich person before, so he knew how to value food, but he came to know its true value when he himself had to struggle with hunger. This is when Veer Shetty went to Maharashtra for some work.
It is said that a disaster in a person’s life does not always harm him, but sometimes this disaster can also prove to be an opportunity for a new success. Something similar happened with Veer Shetty in Maharashtra. There was some coincidence here that Veer Shetty could not even get a grain to eat anywhere. He started feeling bad due to hunger.
In this case, he understood one thing very well that what is the importance of food. Like how Veer Shetty returned to his house, but he did not feel the hunger of hunger from within. From here, he decided that he would do something so that people would never have to long for bread.
Took time to understand people
Veer Shetty wanted to reach people in such a way that not only their hunger could be cured, but along with it their health could also be taken care of. Veer Shetty’s thinking was good but people could not understand him quickly. But Shetty also did not give up and He started growing sorghum in 2005.
Further in 2007, Shetty opened a small shop in Hyderabad, from where he started selling jowar bread. Its price was also low and it was beneficial for health but in those days people did not have awareness about grains like millet and jowar. That is why Shetty’s thinking could not succeed but he did not give up.
He chose a new place for his work where he started getting customers. Most of these customers were patients of diabetes. When the work gained some speed, Veer Shetty opened a small restaurant called SS Bhavani Food. In this restaurant, he started selling Bajra and Jowar dishes as well as telling people the health benefits related to Bajra. Veer Shetty did not stop but kept searching for new avenues.
He designed a bread-making machine by himself, so that he could make 500 rotis in an hour. They started selling from 2000 to 3000 rotis daily. Not only this, Veer Shetty took his cell abroad. He started making dry roti which is suitable to eat for 6 months.
Veer Shetty started exporting about 2000 dry rotis to Australia every month and he sent about 500 Puranpoli to Dubai for the month. Veer Shetty makes all these foods from Bajra itself. Veer Shetty established centers of his company Bhavani Foods in the Huda Colony, Chandannagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, etc. areas.
Today, after seven years of hard work, his company produces more than 60 food items made from a mixture of jowar, millet, foxtail millet and finger millet.
Boon for village farmers
Veer Shetty started this work with the thought that he will give employment to 100 youth of the village. Along with this, he wanted the betterment of the farmers of his area. This is the reason that in addition to their work, they made such arrangements for the farmers so that they can get good prices for good crops. With this thinking, Veer Shetty started the Swayam Shakti Agri Foundation in 2016 to work with farmers.
Veer Shetty’s association is associated with MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. This institution teaches 500 farmers of Koraput district how to make Bajra food items like laddus, sevaiyan, chivda and roti. Along with this, these farmers are also taught what to do and what not to do to prepare the millet crop.
Similarly, Veer Shetty’s organization is associated with about 1000 farmers from eight villages in Sangareddy district. These farmers also had to go to the city to buy a kilo of seeds. Even after this, the problem was that neither they knew the good seeds nor did they get the seeds at the right price, but Veer Shetty started delivering good seeds to these farmers’ houses at the right prices.
Along with this, farmers are also told what is the fair value of their crops. Veer Reddy’s dream is to bring Bajra’s food items to the people around the world who want to eat nutritious food. Along with this, he also wants to improve the condition of farmers. Veer Shetty believes that millet will prove to be a super food item in the future as it is easy to produce along with being beneficial for the body.
Apart from the damage from birds, the risk of ruin of this crop is much less than other crops because it has very low risk of pest or other disease attack. Veer Shetty believes that farmers and soldiers are the two eyes of our country. He is proceeding with this thinking and farmers are also benefiting from this. The award that he received is a proof of how right Veer Shetty’s thinking is.
Awarded Best Farmer Award
He was awarded the Best Farmer Award in 2017 by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. Along with this, in 2017, he was awarded the Dr. MV Rao Memorial Award by Professor Jaishankar of Telangana State Agricultural University. He has also received the Best Millet Misharaya Award from Hyderabad’s Indian Institute of Millet Research.
Apart from all these awards, he has got a name as an achievement. People know him as Millet Man. Veer Shetty Biradar, who works as a driver, earns Rs 3-4 lakh annually from farming besides making millet based foods. Apart from this, he wants to prepare ready-to-eat foods from millet in future so that he can reach the people of the country as well as the world.
People like Veer Shetty Biradar never move alone but all those who are associated with them move forward with them. Then they are unemployed youth or farmers who irrigate crops with sweat and blood.
The story of such a grandma, who did wonders even at the last stage of her age