Bhubaneswar: The state government has been able to procure 18,000 quintals of millet from producers in 2018-19 financial year, the state government told the media here, Friday, and claimed that Millet Mission aimed at bringing the cereal onto the plates of the people is on the right track.
Addressing the concluding Day of Krushi Odisha 2019 here, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Secretary Saurabh Garg said, “The Odisha government has procured 18,000 quintals of millets from farmers in one year alone (2018-19). The mission has been implemented in 40 blocks of 12 districts. Under the mission, we have envisioned 650 community-based organisations and 30 production companies on board.”
According to the department, the government is working hard to give a boost to production of millet and towards hand holding of farmers by ensuring a MSP for their produce. The state government is also working towards diversifying food availability in the state with supplementary nutrition under Millet Mission.
He also stated that the procurement process is underway in the State of Mandia produce for the 2019-20 at MSP.
Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo said that the platforms like ‘Krushi Odisha’ would provide farmers exposure to the latest available technologies, market linkage, value addition, and sourcing of products like mandia (millet) from Odisha.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been reviewing the Millet Mission, which has been a model for the country as well for other states,” said Agriculture and Food Production Director M Muthu Kumar. Many visitors to the exhibition also expressed optimism over the mission.
One of the visitors Swapnarani Sahu said, “I went through the Odisha Millet Mission stall at the expo. Jalebis, pizza, sandwich, kheer and other items made from millets were best and new for me besides being having the virtues of nutritious.” The exhibition also put on offer cookies, cakes and other snacks prepared from millets, locally called as Mandia.
The Millet Mission was launched to promote household-level consumption, farmer collectives and marketing, setting up decentralised processing facilities, improving productivity of Millet crops and inclusion of millet in State Nutrition Programmes and Public Distribution System (PDS).