Bhubaneswar: The establishment of ‘Odisha Millet Mission’ has created new opportunities as a result of the timely step taken by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the revival of millet cultivation in the state.
Under the guidance of ‘Odisha Millet Mission’ the Keonjhar district administration has successfully carried out revival of millet cultivation in the district.
It is worth noting that in Keonjhar district millet was a major part of the food tradition of tribals.
This nutri-cereal is associated with tribal culture. It plays an important role in providing food, nutrition and income security to tribal farmers living in the forested areas.
Odisha Millet Mission was established with the objective for developing methods to increase production, mass cultivation and marketing of this nutri-cereal and its inclusion in the State’s POSHAN programme and the public distribution system.
Millet is one of the nutri-cereal out of the eight nutri-cereals on which focus has been laid under this programme.
Millet cultivation requires less water and it being suitable for the region’s climate and weather conditions the tribes of Keonjhar district have been cultivating it since a long time.
As compared to polished rice and wheat, millet contains more than 30 times more calcium and four times more iron, fibre, minerals and antioxidants. Moreover, it also helps in enhancing the performances of kidney and liver, and lowering cholesterol as well.
Basing on this, the Keonjhar district administration with the help of the District Mineral Fund has restored millet farming among the tribals of the district and is promoting it in mine-affected areas.
As part of the programmes undertaken for improving the livelihoods of the farmers, the administration ensures payment of fair price to the cultivators of millet and raise their living standards.
It was targeted to cultivate millet in 4000 hectares of land in the seven blocks of the district between 2018-19 and 2022.
A total of 4020 farmers are cultivating millets in 88 gram panchayats of the seven blocks in the district.
To expedite millet cultivation in the seven blocks of the district 14 seed centers, 14 agricultural machinery rental centers, 80 millet harvesters, 7 processing units, 106 millet grinding machines are operating under the management of Self Help Groups.
In this programme, Agriculture and Farmer Empowerment; Women and Child Development; Mission Shakti; Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Tribes, Minorities & Backward Class Welfare Departments are in partnership with the Department of Food Supply and Consumer Welfare with technical cooperation from NCDS, WASSAN & CSIR, and CFTRI. With the success of the millet programme, steps have been taken to expand it to the remaining six blocks.
