Best Millet Promoting State Award:
Odisha bagged the Best Millet Promoting State Award in an event ”Nutri-Cereals Multi Stakeholders Mega Convention 3.0 held at Hyderabad. This event was jointly organized by Nutrihub, ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research(IIMR) & the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) in association with NITI Aayog, Government of India.
The award was presented by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar to Dr. M. Muthukumar, Director, Agriculture and Food Production, Odisha under Poshak Anaj Award.
Odisha Millet Mission is working in 15 districts, 84 blocks, and connecting with 16,249 villages in the state. Odisha Millet Mission Model has been appreciated at the national level due to its unique structure involving Government, Civil Society, and Academia. It has achieved many policy milestones.
In this mega convention event, Dr.Muthukumar presented about the experiences and the outreach of Odisha Millet Mission. This program was initiated through the bottom end approach starting from the village, gram panchayat, block, district, and then the state level.
Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Govt. of Odisha congratulated the tribals farmers cultivating millets, Women SHGs of Mission Shakti, Farmer Producers Organizations, Line Departments, NCDS, NGO partners, and WASSAN for their dedicated contribution in achieving this milestone at the National Level.
Milestones of Odisha Millet Mission:
- Odisha became the first state to develop standard specifications for the millet machinery through a recognized panel of experts from different scientific institutions.
- The first state in the country to complete benchmarking of prices of Little Millet and Foxtail Millet.
- First State to declare direct incentives to farmers for 3 years through DBT.
- Odisha received an award for the best government initiative on millet promotion by MoFPI-IIFPT.
- Third State to distribute millets in the PDS in the country
- First State to include Ragi Lodoos in ICDS through the support of the District Mineral Fund.
Still more feathers of milestones to achieve in the coming days.
In this event, Odisha Millet Mission was appreciated by the dignitaries. Mr. Tomio Shichiri, FAO Representative in India said, Odisha has created an example at the National Level. Recently a workshop was conducted on Assessment and documentation of Good Practices, Lessons learned and Preparation of Policy Briefs for Millets Mainstreaming by World Food Programme and IPE Global to take this model at the International level.
With the passing of the resolution of the Indian Government to observe 2023 as the International Year of Millets, the responsibility has tremendously increased to take Millets at the global level. The launch of the White Paper on Millets has provided a suitable road map to ensure the millet revolution in the country.
The Nutri-Cereals Multi-stakeholders Mega Convention’s objective was to bring together all the stakeholders from Millet Industry, from producers to processors to consumers as well as researchers, academicians, and policymakers who are working across the value chain under the theme ”Run-up for International Year of Millets 2023” and sub-theme ”Blueprint for the International Year of Millets 2023”.
In these 2 days events, different sessions were held covering different aspects of Millets and Millets Startups.
- Crop Improvement, Nutrition and value-added processing- status, challenges and way forward.
- Role of Government in strenthening and upscaling millet value chain.
- Millet Opportunities : An Industrial Insights
- Promotion of Millets : A Multi-Stakeholders approach
- Establishment of Agri Incubators in India – Opportunities ahead
- Funding Opportunities in Agri/Food/Nutri Tech Sector
- Startup Journey: Experience sharing
- Agri Tech Revolution – Role of Accelerators in Agri Tech in India
- Telangana Startup Eco-system Meetup
This Mega Convention has given a road map and blue print for the Celebration of the International Year of Millets 2023 and geared up for the Millet Revolution in India and taking millets to the International communities.
Let’s Millets and be Healthy!!!
Author: Tapas Chandra Roy, A Certified Farm Advisor on Millets, ‘Promoting Millets from Farm to Plate’. In a mission to take the forgotten grains- Millets to Millions. To remain updated on my blogs on millets you can join my Telegram Channel – Millet Advisor.
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