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‘Millets Man’ Satheesh dies at 78 in Hyderabad
Satheesh, who established DDS at Zaheerabad in Telangana’s Sangareddy district (previously in Medak district) in the early ’80s, championed issues of agri-biodiversity, food sovereignty, women empowerment, social justice, local knowledge systems, participatory development, and community media.
Founder and executive director of Deccan Development Society (DDS), P V Satheesh, popularly called the ‘Millets Man’ for promoting millet cultivation and organic agriculture in south India, breathed his last at a private hospital in Hyderabad on Sunday, an official statement from the DDS said.
He was 78. His mortal remains were consigned to flames on Monday at Pastapur village of Sangareddy district, which he had adopted for millets cultivation in a big way, the statement added.
Satheesh, who established DDS at Zaheerabad in Telangana’s Sangareddy district (previously in Medak district) in the early ’80s, championed issues of agri-biodiversity, food sovereignty, women empowerment, social justice, local knowledge systems, participatory development, and community media.
He established women sanghams (groups) as part of DDS, which played a major role in taking up millet cultivation and won national acclaim. “The recent efforts to incorporate millets into the public distribution system owes much to the work of DDS under his guidance,” the DDS statement said.
Born on June 18, 1945, in Mysore, Periyapatna Venkatasubbaiah Satheesh was a graduate of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi and started as a journalist.
He went on to work as a pioneering television producer for nearly two decades for Doordarshan, making programmes related to rural development and rural literacy in the then-united Andhra Pradesh. He played an important role in the historical Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) in the 1970s.
The DDS, established by Satheesh, played a major role in eradicating hunger, malnutrition, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, gender injustice, and social deprivation. “He led the organisation for nearly four decades to become an internationally acclaimed NGO and an inspiring example that has motivated similar experiments in millet revival and promotion across the country,” the statement said.
As the director of DDS, PV Satheesh’s long-standing efforts resulted in improving the livelihoods of thousands of poor women across 75 villages in Telangana.
He also led several national and international networks like Millet Network of India (MINI), South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE), AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity, and was also the India coordinator for SANFEC (South Asian Network for Food, Ecology and Culture), a five-country South Asian network with over 200 ecological groups.
He was formerly a board member of Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), Barcelona, Spain, and was also a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), Brussels, Belgium.
Satheesh was also credited with the initiation of India’s first Community Media Trust, a grassroots media centre where non-literate Dalit women were trained in film-making to democratize media spaces, and also with the launching of India’s first rural, civil society-led community radio station, Sangham Radio.
Describing him as her ‘guru’, farm activist Kavitha Karunganti said he was a “great visionary” who nurtured the agency of landless Dalit women farmers. “His legacy will continue. Deccan Development Society’s work embodies what development ought to be,” she tweeted.
