Millet Man Dr. Khadar Vali is on mission to make world disease free. Dr Khadar did his B.Sc. (Ed) and M.Sc. (Ed) from Regional College of Education, Mysuru, and Ph.D. on Steroids at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
Who is Dr. Khadar Valli?
Dr. Khadar Vali, also known as “Millet Man of India”, The son of Husenamma and Husenappa, natives of Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh and residents of Mysuru.
He has worked as a post doctoral fellow on Environment Science at Beaverton Oregon, USA and also as a scientist in CFTRI for three years.
Joining Dupont, he worked for them in India for a year and for 4 and a half years in the US before settling in Mysuru in 1997.
The increasing cases of juvenile diabetes, childhood obesity, early puberty, irregular menstrual cycles, polycystic ovaries, infertility, anaemia, low milk supply during breast feeding and constipation-what does he blame them on? Diet counselors may say it’s all because of chocolates, pizzas and your love for non-vegetarian food but Dr Khader does not feel this is entirely true. “Oxytocin/estrogen hormones are injected into cows to increase milk yield, micro levels of those hormones present in milk is one reason for early puberty in girls. Alloxan, used as a bleaching agent to bleach wheat flour for production of maida (used for preparing bakery products), obstructs the capacity of the pancreas to produce beta cells, which store and release insulin,” he points out.
“Start eating positive grains (Siridhanya) which we used to eat 60 years ago. These include Foxtail (Navane), Barnyard (Oodalu), Kodo (Arka), Little (Saame), Brown top (Korle), fruits and vegetables, palm jaggery (Kappu bella/saate) and use groundnut oil to stay healthy. Positive grains are not just nutritious, they can be grown in dry land and need only 20 cm of rainfall. As high as 60 percent of the available land in India is dry land. So if farmers cultivate positive grains, there can be no drought in the next 50 years,” he reasons.
And the healthy alternative to chocolates? “Give sweet balls prepared from groundnut, til, jaggery and coconut to kids. Cocum used for making chocolate has theobromine, an alkaloid similar to nicotin in tobacco, which can cause an addiction, if taken for 21 days. The pink skin of peanut is rich in anti-oxidants which can fight cancer and other diseases. Til can improve the development of the brain,” he says.
Dr Khadar grows as many as 38 crop varieties including positive grains at home and uses ‘Kaadu Chaitanya dravana,’ a microbial liquid for farming in his 8 acres of dry land in Bidirenahalli in the Kabini backwaters in HD Kote. He even gives a live demo on the right agricultural practices at his farm every Sunday. His daughter Dr Sarala, a homeopath and wife Usha, ha)ve been partnering Dr Khader in his cause.