Discuss the strategy , the need for the promotion of Millets in the country?

Millets are grown on marginal and un-irrigated land and procurement will help in doubling farmers income. Millets are more nutritious and hence would help India fight against malnutrition, Millets are more environment friendly and hence help in promoting sustainable agriculture and in preservation of environment, Local procurement and local consumption will save transportation and avoidable movement of other cereals and Shelf life of some coarse grains is more than three months. Coarse grains are procured by State Government Agencies/FCI from farmers as per extant guidelines.

The major coarse grains crop covered under Minimum Support Price (MSP) are Jowar (Hybrid), Jowar (Maldandi), Bajra, Ragi, Maize and Barley. All millets, Maize and Barely are known as Coarse grains.In India, total 3,04,914 farmers have been benefitted during KMS 2020-21. Total of 1162886 (11.62 LMT) coarse grains have been procured during year 2020-21.

revision of norms will result in encouraging procurement of coarse grain.

1) Production of coarse grains being nutritious food results in sustainable agriculture development, and diversification of crops, their procurement needs to be encouraged.

2) Permission to procure will be given only after previous stocks have been disposed of to avoid possible recycling. Interstate movement as per requirement of consuming state.

3)revision in Policy Guidelines for procurement, distribution and disposal of coarse grains were required.

4)Local procurement and local consumption will save transportation and avoidable movement of other cereals and Shelf life of some coarse grains is more than three months

Production side

 Support for soil health improvement measures with millets farmers explicitly 

recognized as group entitled to such support.

 Evolving, demonstration and support for location specific package of practices

(PoPs) for all millets, with special focus on small millets inclusion. 

 Support for seed production following a two-pronged approach, one in the lines of 

large scale organized seed channels for generally established and proven varieties 

and another involving local seed banks for niche varieties grown in specific areas. 

 Support for selective mechanization covering various activities, especially for 

weeding, harvesting, threshing and dehulling. Implements should improve labour 

productivity mainly at those critical moments in the production process in which 

labour is scarce. 

 Support for drying and threshing yards: The need for this is common to various 

crops and such yards built under existing general agricultural schemes are utilized by 

millet farmers. One could imagine that priority areas for development of such 

infrastructure are determined on the basis of millets cultivation. Such infrastructure 

will improve the effectiveness of dehulling and the quality of dehulled grains by 

reducing the incorporation of impurities. 

 Financial support for small-scale millets cultivators (primarily for home 

consumption) who employ ecologically sound or organic-equivalent farming 

practices and maintain on-farm biodiversity.

 Organising procurement of millets all millets-cultivating districts based on a relevant 

intervention price (MSP). 

 Support for marketing initiatives aiming to provide millets farmers with a higher 

income share for their produce.

Demand side

 Inclusion of all millets into the PDS and menus of various food-based welfare 

schemes implemented at state level.

 Support for improvement and dissemination of post-harvest processing technology 

addressing needs at different magnitudes:

i. Support for small processing units within a radius of five km from the 

village

ii. Support for production cum processing cluster

iii. Support for ready-to-eat millet food entrepreneurs

 Government sponsored awareness raising programs focusing on three elements: 

i. Consumption promotion campaigns through mass media coverage

ii. Integration of information on millets into education curricula

iii. Spreading information amongst farmers and other potential beneficiaries 

of the support offered through the strategy.