Chennai, Aug 8 (Agency) Calling to make millets a National movement, Union Minister for Women and Child Development (WCD) Smriti Zubin Irani said that procurement of millets to meet the demand was one of the greatest challenges. In her keynote address at the International Conference on ‘Mighty Millets for Food, Nutrition, and Health Security’ hosted by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), which concluded here on Tuesday, she said “one of the greatest challenge is the procurement of millets and the requirement for state governments to produce enough millets to meet demand.”
While detailing efforts taken by the WCD Ministry to use and popularise millets for women and child care, Ms Irani, in her address through video conferencing from New Delhi, clarified that the Ministry has always insisted that millets be infused in early childhood development care. “Make millets a people’s movement, because when one speaks of health security and millets, one should not be restrained and believe that it is only the security of individual health, but it is equally dedicated to the health of the soil and ecology,” she added. Speaking about the many programme run by the Union Government to ensure better delivery of nutrition among vulnerable populations, Ms Irani said “apart from government intervention, there is a pressing need for societal knowledge that requires engagement of young mothers on eating habits that helps to engrain the life cycle of better nutrition in a child.”