Millet Day: Odisha leads the nutrition race

Bhubaneswar, Nov 10: The Odisha government is observing 10th November 2022 as 'Millet Day' in the state. The day is chosen according to the Hindu calendar, the 1st thursday of margasira month. The primary aim of celebrating the day is to promote millets as a highly nutritive and eco-friendly food product.

Millets are a rich source of protein, fibre, minerals, iron and calcium. To revive millet cultivation, the government of India announced an allocation of Rs. 300 crores in 2011-12 under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana for promotion of millets as nutri-cereals. In view of the nutritional value of the millets, millets were notified as nutri-cereals in April, 2018 and the year was celebrated as the National Year of Millets. To create domestic and global demand and to provide nutritional food to the people, government of India proposed to the United Nations and the year 2023 is declared as the International Year of Millets.

Odisha Millet Mission:

Traditionally, millets formed a substantial part of the diets and cropping system in the tribal areas of Odisha. Millets require less water and are more resilient to climate vulnerability. To revive the inclusion of millets in the diet, the Odisha government launched the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM) in 2017.

In 2017, the mission was launched in 30 blocks spread over 7 districts. By 2021, it has been successfully implemented in 84 blocks of 15 districts. For 2022-23, it is set to extend to 142 blocks of 19 districts. The programme started with 8,030 farmers with millet cultivation over an area of 7,444 acres. Further, the agriculture department plans to cover 81,700 hectares in 2022-23.

Further, the Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik announced Rs.100 crore government support under OMM in 2019-20. Under Public Distribution System in the state, ragi is provided at the rate of Rs. 2 per kg to ration cardholders.

The OMM also improved the involvement of women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs). SHGs increasingly participated in the millet value chain from processing, value addition and marketing.