Opportunities and challenges in food entrepreneurship: In-depth qualitative investigation of millet entrepreneurs

Consumer food preferences are undergoing a rapid transformation, and there has been a heightening of interest in eating healthy, sustainable foods. Food entrepreneurs are cashing in on the trend and are diversifying their existing offerings to include healthier options using alternate ingredients such as millets. However, these entrepreneurs face several challenges, and the actual growth of the market is lower than expected. The present study examines the opportunities and challenges faced by millet entrepreneurs. A total of 25 millet entrepreneurs were interviewed using a semi-structured qualitative design. Key opportunities include increased awareness of millets, people going back to their traditions, and informative food labels were the key opportunities, while a lack of awareness, lack of familiarity, preparation difficulty, sensory attributes, lack of affordability, inferior image, customer distrust, and millets' longer gestational cycle were major challenges. © 2022 The Author(s)

Opportunities and challenges in food entrepreneurship: In-depth qualitative investigation of millet entrepreneurs

Consumer food preferences are undergoing a rapid transformation, and there has been a heightening of interest in eating healthy, sustainable foods. Food entrepreneurs are cashing in on the trend and are diversifying their existing offerings to include healthier options using alternate ingredients such as millets. However, these entrepreneurs face several challenges, and the actual growth of the market is lower than expected. The present study examines the opportunities and challenges faced by millet entrepreneurs. A total of 25 millet entrepreneurs were interviewed using a semi-structured qualitative design. Key opportunities include increased awareness of millets, people going back to their traditions, and informative food labels were the key opportunities, while a lack of awareness, lack of familiarity, preparation difficulty, sensory attributes, lack of affordability, inferior image, customer distrust, and millets’ longer gestational cycle were major challenges.

Mainstreaming orphan millets for advancing climate smart agriculture to secure nutrition and health.

The ever-changing climate and the current COVID-19 pandemic compound the problems and seriously impact agriculture production, resulting in socio-economic insecurities and imposing health implications globally. Most of the poor and malnourished population in the developing countries depends on agriculture for food, income, and employment. Impact of climate change together with the COVID-19 outbreak revealed immense problems highlighting the importance of mainstreaming climate-resilient and low input crops with more contemporary agriculture practices. Orphan millets play a vital role in the poor and malnourished population's livelihood, food and nutrition security. Recognizing their unique potential, the United Nations-Food and Agriculture Organization has announced the year 2023 as the "International Year of Millets". However, despite the unique properties for present and future agriculture of orphan millets, their cultivation is declining in many countries. As a result, millets have gained attention from researchers which eventually decelerated "multi-omics" resource generation. This review summarizes the benefits of millets and major barriers/ bottlenecks in their improvement. We also discuss the pre- and post-harvest technologies; policies required to introduce and establish millets in mainstream agriculture. To improve and ensure the livelihood of the poor/malnourished population, intensive efforts are urgently needed in advancing the research and development, implementing pre- and post-harvest technological intervention strategies, and making favorable policies for orphan crops to accomplish food and nutrition security. National and international collaborations are also indispensable to address the uncertain effects of climate change and COVID-19.

Isolation, biochemical characterization and safety screening of potential probiotic lactic acid bacteria from spontaneously fermented cereal products from Western Kenya

The global demand for non-dairy beverages has sky rocketed especially so during this Covid-19 pandemic for potential health benefits. Development of probiotic strains from fermented cereal and legumes with the ability to grow well and adapt to gastrointestinal conditions at the same time possess high therapeutic ability will be a great achievement. This study aimed at isolating and screening probiotic potential Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) involved in traditional fermentation of cereals (maize, sorghum and millet). A total of ten isolates were obtained from the cereals out of which five isolates that met preliminary attributes of probiotic bacteria were selected for further investigation. Two isolates SPU2 and FPU1 were found to survive a low pH which is a desirable attribute for the survival of probiotic bacteria in the gut. MPU1, FPU1 and SPU2 are possible thermophiles and can survive at low pH and moderate high salt concentration. The enzymes DNase and gelatinase used to test pathogenicity of a microorganism were not produced by all the isolates in this study. The isolates recorded a high susceptibility to the eight antibiotics. This study also revealed that the tested isolates have the ability to grow well even at the minimum tested pH of 1.0 for 1 and 2 h of incubation, respectively. Most isolates were resistant to 0.3% bile concentration with over 92% survival. FPU1 was more resistant at bile concentration of 1% than all the rest while MPU1 was most resistant at 2% bile salt. Traditionally fermented cereals are potential sources of safe bacteria that can be tried in the production of functional foods.

Small Millets for Enduring Food Security Amidst Pandemics.

Food security is an ongoing problem, and current staple foods are not sufficient to overcome challenges such as the present COVID-19 pandemic. We propose here that small millets have the potential to become new staple crops, especially in hunger hotspots. Currently, the absence of intensification of millet farming, lack of deployment of genetic tools for trait improvement, and the need for optimization of storage and supply chains limit crop production. We highlight a roadmap to strengthen small millet cultivation, such as identifying varieties suitable for particular environments and targeting trait improvement using genetic and genomic approaches. These approaches will help to combat hunger and malnutrition and also economically benefit the farmers and stakeholders involved in small millet cultivation amidst the ongoing pandemic.