Bhubaneswar: Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Energy Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo held a meeting on the development of specialty rice and a millet factory at Baramunda. The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Agriculture, Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, Director Agriculture, Subham Saxena and Director Mission Shakti, Monica Priyadarshini.
The project focuses on ICAR rice with ultra‑low Glycemic Index (GI) varieties, aiming to produce rice with a lower GI than the normal. The total project cost is estimated at ₹91,22,91,287 for setting up 1st of a kind millet factory across India, which will process rice with a protein content of 10–12% in low GI rice.
Deputy Chief Minister said that, production of low GI rice and millet in a large scale will be more beneficial for diabetic people and rice lovers. Similarly, production of millet in a large scale will be beneficial for health, and economy, as its demand rises day by day.
Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Dr. Padhee said that the initiative aims to make more Lakhpati Didi’s (beneficiaries) as SHGs will be directly connected with this and promote nutritional low GI content rice varieties nationwide.
Key aspects of the specialty rice & millet factory includes Purification & release of low GI varieties, Marketing strategy involving aggregation, cluster production, and profiling. A market study will be done by IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) and financial monitoring through CFMS.
The other attendees include, Dr. Warrior from ICAR, representatives from IRRI, OAIC, OUAT, IMAGE, senior officers from the Department of Agriculture.
