ICAR-SBI, Coimbatore Collaborates with Anamalai Tiger Reserve to Combat Malnutrition Among Tribal Communities

7 May 2026, Coimbatore

ICAR–Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore collaborated with the Tiruppur Division of Anamalai Tiger Reserve to organise a ‘Tribal Training Campaign’ for tribal communities residing in the remote hamlets of Poochakottamparai and Karumutti under the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribe Component (DAPSTC) project.

Presiding over the programme, Dr P. Govindaraj, Director, ICAR-SBI highlighted that more than 40 departments of the Government of India are implementing DAPSTC initiatives focusing on tribal development in areas such as agriculture, education, healthcare, irrigation, employment generation and skill development. He informed that ICAR-SBI initiated the DAPSTC project in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve in 2021 with the objective of promoting need-based and holistic developmental interventions for tribal communities.

Dr Govindaraj stressed the importance of preventing child marriages and encouraged the effective utilisation of common assets created under the project, including power tillers, to enhance agricultural productivity and livelihoods.

During the campaign, experts administered a pledge against malnutrition and observed that vegetable consumption among tribal communities remained below the recommended dietary levels. To address this concern, ICAR-SBI has been distributing kitchen garden vegetable seeds and millet seeds as a locally adaptable and sustainable strategy to improve household nutrition.

Referring to the successful implementation of DAPSTC interventions in the ‘Mavanatham’ tribal hamlet of the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, where vegetable and millet cultivation along with the adoption of pulverizers for primary processing and value addition yielded encouraging results, Dr Govindaraj encouraged the Mudhuvar tribal communities to explore opportunities in millet-based entrepreneurship by leveraging their traditional farming knowledge and skills.

Training programmes on ginger cultivation, mushroom farming and scientific millet cultivation were also conducted during the campaign. As part of the initiative, tribal farmers were provided with power tillers, farm tools, household items, kitchen garden kits, pearl millet and green manure seeds, and areca seedlings, among other inputs aimed at strengthening sustainable livelihoods and nutritional security.

(Source: ICAR–Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore)