Sundargarh: In a bid to boost nutrition levels of people, the state government will introduce millet cultivation in three more blocks of Sundargarh district. The government has taken up a five-year action plan to encourage farmers into growing millet in Lahunipada, Lathikata and Gurundia blocks.
Funds will be allocated from the district mineral foundation (DMF) for the purpose while a tripartite agreement was signed among the DMF authorities, the agriculture and farmers’ empowerment department and Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) at the DMF office here recently.
It was in 2018 when Sundargarh was included among districts having potential to grow nutritious crops. In the first phase, farming of millets and other nutritious crops was taken up in Kutra, Nuagaon, Kuanrmunda and Rajgangpur blocks.
In 2020, Millet Mission was expanded to four more blocks in the district. Farmers of Tangarpalli, Hemgiri, Lefripada and Balishankara were provided financial assistance from the DMF to go in for millet farming.
Millets and other nutritious crops are now produced in eight blocks. As this farming is more lucrative than paddy, more farmers in the district are keen to take up millet farming. Owing to its nutritional value, demand for millet is going up in the district as well as the state.
Significantly, millets have been added to the menu of some schemes like Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDM), supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Anganwadi Centres.
In view of this, the district administration had earlier proposed the state government to promote millet farming in three more blocks. The government has given a go-ahead to the proposal of the district administration.
PNN