The project, planned to be carried out in Arhavi district of Artvin, will focus on millets (Setaria and other millet types), which are among the almost forgotten agricultural heritage products of the
Laz people. In recent years, the importance of millets in biodiversity and culture, especially in health and food, has been increasingly recognized in the international community. Emphasizing joint efforts to empower small farmers, eliminate hunger, adapt to climate change, promote biodiversity
and transform agricultural food systems among the Sustainable Development Goals, FAO
declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
With this project, efforts will be made to introduce millets, restart their cultivation in
Arhavi, introduce them to the local cuisine and bring them to the market. In the records of Evliya Çelebi, it is stated that millets, which are understood to be widespread in the food culture of Anatolia by being associated with a wide variety of dishes, were the main grain product in the Eastern Black Sea region before the cultivation of corn. With the widespread use of tea in the 1950s, millet farming gradually decreased, and today millets are rarely planted as feed for caged birds and are not included in the kitchen or market.
In the non-systematic preliminary ethnobotanical research conducted by Ceren Kazanc? Oruç
and Soner Oruç with their relatives in several coastal villages of Artvin and in their own villages in 2019, it was determined that millets are currently used in many dishes and breads where corn
flour is used, but they have never been planted and have not been used in meals for 50-60
years. Forgetting the millet species that the Laz call "kurumi" has also left behind the memories of
many plants related to it, the tools used to harvest it, the processes used to make it edible,
the bread, soup, pilaf and many other dishes made from it, and their Laz names. The
team conducting the research has been multiplying millet seeds by making trial plantings in
their own home gardens in Arhavi since 2022.