‘Odisha will go a long way in reviving millet food culture and promoting its cultivation’

Bhubaneswar, Sep 6 (FN Agency) A State Level Steering Committee in connection with holding of International Convention of Millets was held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Shri Pradeep Kumar Jena on Tuesday. The said convention is scheduled to be held on November 9 and 10 at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. Development Commissioner and ACS Smt. Anu Garg, Principal Secretary Agriculture and FE DepartmentDr. Arvinda Kumar Padhee, Commissioner –cum- Secretary, Mission Shakti Department, Smt. Sujata Karthikeyan, Director, Agriculture, Shri Prem Chandra Chaudhary, Special Secretary, Home Department, Dr. Santosh Bala and other officials participated in the discussion. Hon’ble Chief Minister declared 10th November 2022 as Mandia Divas (Millet Day) with a view to promote millet production in Odisha and approved a plan of action for OMM-IYOM Framework, IYM Activities and holding of International Convention on 10th Novemner, 2023. The detail regarding activities under OMM and plan for holding of IYoM, its objectives, design and proposed collaborating organizations and day wise schedule of International convention have been discussed in the meeting.

The main objective of the conference is to increase the household consumption of millets, revalorization of millet food culture in urban and rural areas, conservation and promotion of millet landraces through seed system of landraces, promotion of post-harvest and primary processing enterprises, improving productivity of millets –based crop systems, promotion of value addition enterprises in rural and urban areas,inclusion of millets in PDS, ICDS, MDM, Welfare Hostels etc and facilitating the markets and exports of millet-based products. The Chief Secretary stressed the need to focus on the latest research in the field of Millet production, farming practices, value added production and to ensure that the conference to be held will be of international standard. The convention will encourage the marketing and export of millet-based products, including measures to include the use of millet food in the public distribution system, ICDS, mid-day meals, hostels, etc. The conference will also help in linking millets with sports and incorporating millets in all sports hostels, engaging schools, hotels, hospitals, celebrities in the use and promotion of millets, linking millets and green investments, re-exploring investments in the Odisha Millet Mission.

Millet Shakti Cafes/Outlets have been opened in major cities and district headquarters with value added use of millet based products through Mission Shakti SHGs. Breakfast and Snacks are being served at the Millet Tiffin Centres within the block towns. At the district and city level, mobile sales units are selling dry and value-added products. Odisha Millets Mission is now expanded to 177 blocks covering 30 districts from 143 blocks in 19 districts. Odisha Cabinet chaired by Hon’ble Chief Minister has approved expansion of OMM from 2023-24 to 2026-27. Technology demonstrations were carried out in 79000 Ha in 2022-23 covering 1.72 Lakh farmers. For FY 2023-24, target is set for 1.5 Lakh Ha covering more than 2.2 Lakh farmers. 6.04 Lakh Qntls of Ragi was procured in FY 2022-23. Ragi procurement target has been set for 8 Lakh Qntl for FY 2023-24. 84 FPOs are empanelled as block level ragi procurement agency through TDCCOL in FY 2022-23. Odisha is also first State to initiate benchmarking exercise of little millet and foxtail millets for better marketing. 120 FPOs are engaged in OMM as implementing agencies. More than 1500 WSHGs are involved in different value chain activities. 262 Custom Hiring Centres/Community Managed Seed Centres, 684 nos. of threshing units, 43 nos. of Ragi Cleaner-cum-Grader-cum-Destoner units, 778 nos of Multi grain Pulverizer Units, 2 nos of Integrated Minor Millet Processing units are managed by the FPOs and WSHGs.

Odisha has been awarded as best performing millet promotion State award at the National Convention on Nutri Cereals in 2021 and as best State for scaling up millet mission in 2022 by the Ministry of Agriculture & FW (MoA&FW) and ICAR.Mint India identified OMM as one of the National best practices across India. The MoA&FW and NITI Aayog identified OMM as one of the best models and asked different State governments to adopt the OMM approach.Government of India has set up a task force to understand the framework of Odisha Millets Mission and to revise the National submission on millets based on the learning of the OMM. The international conference, to be organised in collaboration with various affiliates like FICCI alongwth multi stakeholders will have two days of interactive sessions, G2B and B2B meetings to discuss leadership and facilitation to promote Odisha Millet Mission and Millet Shakti. Through social media campaigns and strategic initiatives such as PR programmes, consumer demand for millets and value-added products produced in Odisha will be encouraged and developed. A detailed action plan has been prepared viz; millet quiz competition, essay competition, exposure visit, food festival, rural history program to involve students in collaboration with OSEPA, School and Mass Education Department. Chefs of various hotels and restaurants are being trained in preparing delicious dishes prepared by millets. The conference will create an opportunity for engagement and collaboration with educational institutions, health institutions, hotel associations, safe associations and others to create wider awareness among students and consumers as nutritious and health-enhancing food options. The convention will showcase the success stories of farmers, women self-help groups and other stakeholders of the Odisha Millet Mission. This will facilitate market linkages between companies, MSMEs, FPOs, WSHGs for millet based products.