Hon'ble. Vice chancellor of SSSIHL visit to DFI Vedic Faramacy.
Prof. K B R Verma, Hon'ble. Vice-Chancellor of Sri Sathaya Sai University vistis our DFI Vedic Farmacy with his research team. The team was headed with Dean of sciences, HOD of the Dept. of Bioscinces and four assistant professors who all have completed post-doctoral ship in different branches of sciences.
Organic Cum Nursery Expo 2017, Vijayawada.
Granoss Team of Diabetic Food International Pvt. Ltd was invited to participate in the 1st Organic Cum Nursery expo 2017 at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. The Department of Horticulture in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will conduct its first ‘Organic-cum- Nursery Expo’ at Siddhartha College of Hotel Management Grounds from August 15 to 18. The exhibition was attended by the Honorable. Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Mr. Chandrababu Naidu. We are extremely happy that the Chief Minister visited our stall and spend considerable time understanding and appreciating our efforts in reviving and distributing millets and millet products in India and abroad, and most importantly our efforts towards helping the farmers and educating them via our model farm. Later while addressing the participants and the exhibitors, the Chief Minister highlighted the work done by our company and the achievements made by our company thus far in exporting our products to the Middle East.
Below is the article published an inerview with Mr. Pavan Kumar T L ( Director of Diabetic Food International Pvt. Ltd.) By Start Up Success Stories India e-Magazine
This Startup Works on Social Objectives of Bringing Back Millets to Daily Diets World Over and Supporting Millet Farming and Farming Communities
August 19, 2017in Featured Interviews of Entrepreneurs, Interviews with Entrepreneurs, Startups in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, Startups in Andhra Pradesh
We are publishing an interview of Mr. Pavan Kumar, Director, Diabetic Food International Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Pavan Kumar (Former SAP Labs employee with 16 years of experience in IT and Social Entrepreneurship ) and Mrs. Shobha Menon (Venture Capitalist & Business Entrepreneur Been in the International Business for Over 25 years. ) and are the founders of Diabetic Food International Pvt Ltd, the producers of Granoss Millets and Millet Products.
• Revival of Millets Farming
• Support to Farmers (end to end)
• Creation of Alternative Healthy Foodgrain for Global Distribution
• Social Outreach Program for Farmers and Health Education Program for Prevention and Management of Diabetes
• Conservation of water resources for producing the food.
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
The problem afflicting the world today is unhealthy high chemical contaminated food cultivation and ingestion of high carbohydrate diets both of which are leading to an alarming incidence of cancers, diabetes, heart disease etc. The only solution for mankind is firstly to go back to natural zero chemical farming and secondly towards ingestion of healthy low carbohydrate grains such as millets, bajra, and amarnath as their staple food. Our company’s efforts are aimed at reviving Zero Chemical Millet farming, thereby providing an alternative food choice that will ensure good health, and prevent /manage life threatening diseases. Today International numbers on Cancers and Diabetes are increasing exponentially and all including Indians must awake and stall the alarming rise of these diseases in India. Our company objectives and our efforts are in that direction.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
The uniqueness of our Startup is that we are a socio- economic cause aimed at benefitting both the rural and the urban people of India. We are involved in every step of the process from the farm to the home. Our products are of international quality, premium grains, unpolished, 100% natural, chemical free, and vacuum packed with a certified long shelf life. The different Millet grains ( Foxtail millet, Proso Millet, Kodo Millet and Little Millet) and Millets products (such as semolina , roti flour and khichadi mix) are suited for both Indian and Continental Recipes.
Difodin is a socio-economic project, hence our goal is to incentivize millet farming for the benefit of farmers and to make premium quality millets available to consumers at the best possible price. Currently in India, we are on an e-commerce model and our sales are online via our website difodin.com and via amazon.in . Our efforts are on to establish the direct selling or the multi level marketing module so that it will provide employment and income to a large number of people and also create awareness about the potential of millets among the public. As the level of awareness about the potential of millets increases more and more people are sure to move towards a millet based diets. With the multilevel directing marketing module, along with the online business module, I am sure our social and economic goals will be easily met. Our emphasis is primarily on the quality of our product and the commitment to our farmers.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
Every individual who wants to remain healthy and keep away from life threatening and debilitating diseases should look at moving to a millet based diet. Millets are a boon to those families which have a member who has been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or diabetes. Millets are the key to the prevention and management of not only diabetes but heart disease, hypertension, cancers, etc because one invariably leads to the other. With high ingestion of wheat and wheat products there are innumerable people who are suffering silently from gluten intolerance and celiac disease. To such people millet flour and millet semolina are the foods that will give them health and well- being. Those people who are fighting obesity or desirous of increasing their fitness levels, for such people too millets are the answer. Truly speaking , everyone should move to a millet rich diet, and move away from rice and wheat based diets if they want to ensure good health throughout their lives. When disease strikes we spend our entire lifetime and life earning to regain it , but isn’t it better to make the right choice and live healthy and happy .
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
There is an awakening in the entire world today on the value of good health and the search is on for whole grains which are alternatives to rice and wheat. India we are lucky to produce millets traditionally and due to the unhealthy predominance of rice and wheat , cultivation of millets which are infact a drought resistant crop has eroded. Our objective is to bring millets back into people’s diets, revive millet farming , and thereby support the farmers. Our objective is to launch 27 products which are Chemical Free and Highly Nutritious. We are confident that Granoss Millets will become a household name throughout India over the next 5 years. India is the highest producer of millets in the world and by the year 2020 we hope to distribute our millet products to 10 international markets.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
The cultivation of the millets has drastically gone down in Anantapur region revival of this was a big challenge because of no subsidy encouragement from the government. The problems faced by the farmers are highlighted by the extent of poverty in the region due to drought and less rain fall. Our efforts towards incentivizing millet farming combined with our research and efforts in zero chemical and zero budget farming created a sense of hope and empowerment in the minds of the farmers in the region. That to us is our true success story. Of course there is immense success in the encouragement and appreciation we have been receiving from nutritionists, dieticians, doctors , and consumers who are very happy with the quality and variety of our products and the availability of the products throughout India via amazon. .
Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
The journey this far has not been easy but it has been very rewarding and we are very fortunate to have a very committed and dedicated people working with us at different levels in India and abroad. Currently we are working towards the formation of a co-operative society that will empower the women folk in the Anantapur region of Andhra Pradesh with regular source of income for their family. But more about that later.
Visit of School Children at the Vedic Farmacy
"National Trade Fair Organics & Millets 2017" Bangalore.
Diabetic Food International P Ltd, was proud to participate in The ‘National Trade Fair- Organics & Millets 2017’ is a national conference and exposition on a vista of opportunities in agriculture and horticulture, processing and marketing. The fair was an important confluence for all organic stakeholders for the promotion of trade, sharing information and knowledge about millets, and the ranging variety of millet crops.
Diabetic Food International took part in the Speciality Food Festival in Dubai, Middle East on 7th – 9th November 2016. It is the premier regional global event for gourmet, speciality & organic food products. The exhibition was attended by delegates from 10 countries. DFI participated to showcase the brand of Granoss products. In the pictures you can see our Directors Ms. Shobha Menon & Mr. Pavan Talpak interacting with visitors.
This was also a Launchpad for Mijoss brand of ragi (finger millet) millet bites in 4 flavours, strawberry, mango, vanilla & chocolate. Middle East agency agreement was signed with Mr. Anmol Bhojwani from Bhojwani commodities.
In the drought hit areas of Anantapur district it is difficult to grow crops. To make this possible & help farmers grow a Zero chemical product is the vision that is developed by DFI. Here you see the results of training & cultivation done in the land at Vanavolu village. This is the crop for Foxtail & Porso millets.
The photographs are to give an overview of the number of Farming projects undertaken by DFI in various districts of Anantapur district. This place is in Vanavolu village 30km from Puttaparthi. You will see here the process of cleaning and preparing the land, plowing the field, mixing the seeds & sowing the millets.