Periyapatna Venkatasubbaiah Satheesh was also known as the ‘Millet Man of Telangana’.

Born on 18 June 1945 in Mysuru, PV Satheesh graduated from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and started his career as a journalist.

For nearly two decades, he was a pioneering television producer for the state-run Doordarshan, where he often made programmes promoting rural development and literacy in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh.

Satheesh is credited with having established the Deccan Development Society (DDS) in Zaheerabad, a semi-arid region in rural Telangana.

Through this, he played a pivotal role in improving the livelihoods of thousands of women who were largely from Dalit and Adivasi communities across 75 villages in Telangana.

The DDS organised a range of programmes challenging hunger, malnutrition and monoculture, and promoting biodiversity, gender justice and economic security.

One of their focus areas was the revival of millets, particularly white jowar (sorghum), native to the region that can sustainably grow in semi-arid conditions.

Recalling how they transformed the barren land into fertile soil, Satheesh had said it involved 10 years of de-stoning, adding topsoil, bringing in natural manure and making the earth habitable and cultivable again.

In June 2019, DDS was selected for the Equator Prize for 2019 by the United Nations for setting an outstanding example of local, nature-based solutions to climate change and sustainable development.

With his focus on millets, Satheesh successfully pushed the Union government to implement the National Food Security Act, of 2013 and advocated for millets to be included in the public distribution system (PDS).

Satheesh is also credited with starting India’s first Community Media Trust, a grassroots organisation where poor and marginalised Dalit women received training in filmmaking.

The initiative is also credited with launching India’s first rural and civil society-led community radio station called Sangham Radio.

Satheesh also played a key role in the historical Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) which made informational television programs available to rural India.

The experiment covered 2,400 villages across six states and led to an increased focus on satellite broadcasting in India.

While he passed away in March 2023, he left behind a legacy.