‘Millet Man’, PV Satheesh Passes Away At 77 After Lingering Illness

Hundreds of people from various villages had begun to flock to Pastapur to pay their final respects to PV Satheesh. The man who is known as the Millet Man of India for his pioneering work in demonstrating an alternative, ecologically sustainable agricultural food system, died on Sunday morning in Hyderabad after a long illness.

Satheesh, who had been ill for some time, died at a private hospital in Hyderabad at 5 a.m. on Sunday.

Satheesh established DDS to advocate for agricultural biodiversity, food sovereignty, women's empowerment, social justice, local knowledge systems, participatory development, and community media.

The work of DDS under his direction is largely responsible for the recent initiatives to include millets in the public food distribution system. Years back, Mr. Satheesh established a local public distribution system that was primarily based on millet products and was managed by women farmers.              

Periyapatna Venkatasubbaiah Satheesh was born on June 18, 1945, in Mysore, Karnataka. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi and began his career as a journalist. He went on to work as a pioneering television producer for Doordarshan for nearly two decades, producing programs about rural development and literacy in the then-united Andhra Pradesh. In the 1970s, he was a key figure in the historic Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE).

PV Satheesh's long-standing efforts as DDS director resulted in the improved livelihoods of thousands of poor women across 75 villages in Telangana. He also led several national and international networks, including the Millet Network of India (MINI), South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE), the AP Coalition in Defense of Diversity, and the South Asian Network for Food, Ecology, and Culture (SANFEC), a five-country South Asian network with over 200 ecological groups.

He was a relentless worker, a leader in the NGO sector, and a wonderful mentor to many young people who shared his conviction in his values. He was recently recognized for his lifetime achievements in making millets a priority for the people at the People's Conference on Millets in Delhi by the RRA (Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture) Network.

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