ABSTRACT
Wheat is used for making ours, such as maida and semolina, that are ultimately utilized in the preparation of a variety of food products, including fermented foods (Figure 7.2). Rural women in Maharashtra (western India), during hot summers, using their indigenous knowledge, prepare the very popular papadi, kurdai, and sandage from wheat, sorghum, and ragi (nger millet) cereal crops. However, a large variation in production techniques of various fermented foods exists from region-toregion. is knowledge has been collected from the literature (e.g., Joshi et al., 2012; Padmaja and George, 1999; Kanwar et al., 2007; Tamang et al., 1988, 2012); akur et al., 2004) and from the results of survey carried out and documented. Similar examples of other South Asian countries can also be cited (Vijaylakshmi, 2005). Many of the conventional food products are made only at home (Soni and Arora, 2000) for household consumption, although, as a source of income, many women also cook such foods at home or on a place setting in small wooden carts to sell to the wider local population.
