In Karnataka district, a ‘rotti’ revival builds brand & business for women

Kalaburagi district has 90% of rainfed area under cultivation with jowar and bajra being their staple food, but the popularity has plunged due to urbanisation and a shift mainly towards rice and wheat.

Kalaburagi DC Fouzia Taranum. (Praveen Khanna)

Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum, who has won the Excellence in Governance Awards 2024, organised by The Indian Express, in the category of Jury Special Awards for comprehensive development in the district, then decided to present Kalaburagi Rotti as a brand and reintroduce millet as a staple in the region.

Launched in March 2024, the Kalaburagi Rotti Sahakara Sanga (Kalaburagi Roti Cooperative Forum) has brought about a massive shift among the hundreds of women SHGs in the rotti-making business in Kalaburagi.

In Kalaburagi region, a total of 150 roti-making machines have been distributed so far, and 25 women have opted for a subscription model of making a one-time payment of Rs 5,000 to the cooperative forum.

Usually, the machines cost around Rs 5-10 lakh, but women can buy it at a subsidised rate of Rs 2 lakh.

To promote the product, the Kalaburagi Rotti has been listed on food delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy. The website also receives orders from cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

To meet the demands, the government is targeting around 4,000-5,000 rottis per month, and help women earn an average of Rs 30,000 per month by procuring each roti at Rs 6.

The government primarily sells jowar, bajra and dapatti rottis under the Kalaburagi rotti brand. The renewed focus on millets is also supported by schemes like PM Formalization of Micro Food Enterprises and PM Krishi Sinchayee Yojane (PMKSY 2.0).

Nirmala says the machines double the rotti numbers, save time in case of big orders, facilitating more income and access to markets outside Kalaburagi. “Most of my income goes towards loan repayment, EMI on the rotti making machine, and school fees of my children among other expenses. I have cleared Rs 50,000 in EMI for the machine so far,” said Nirmala.

Ayyamma Kumari, 40, earns `30,000 per month by supplying around 5,000 rottis. “Many had doubts about the quality of machine-made rottis. Usually, they were thin. But after the orders began coming in, we realised customers had accepted it.”

Samad Patel, Joint Director of Agriculture, Kalaburagi district, told The Indian Express, “Our plan is to increase the Kalaburagi rotti exports to countries like US and UK and launch an exclusive quick commerce app to ensure Kalaburagi rottis reach your doorstep in 10 minutes. We want to bring in more self help groups, but we first need to sort out the resources at the backend, including supply chain and logistics.”

Taranum said: “I’m very happy and this award is very motivating for me and my team… We had a lot of farmer- friendly initiatives and ensured insurance payouts happened. We also thought we got women collectives together and registered them under cooperative society. We have set up franchises for their products and they have a constant stream of material, orders and money. I met a group recently who got 2,000 orders in a single day, they were so excited. All the profits go to the cooperatives and the farmers,”