Centre Stresses on Millet Production with New Partnerships in Place

The Union government has devised a layered strategy in partnership with state governments and the commercial sector to increase millet production and consumption. This plan has a number of branches, including bettering the quality of seeds, product development, and increasing procurement of nutri-cereals.

With a focus on production, processing, consumption, marketing, and the inclusion of millets in government programs, the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), will now work as a "center for excellence" as announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget. In an effort to work alongside the guidelines on millets, IIMR is now collaborating with state-specific millet missions in Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh.

According to CV Ratnavathi, director of IIMR, a Hyderabad-based organization connected to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, "farmers should be able to earn a proper income via millet cultivation, development of value-added products in collaboration with several state governments as well as corporate sectors."

The institute has signed MOUs with corporate giants like Britannia, Hindustan Unilever, and Tata Soulfull to provide technical expertise on producing ready-to-eat meals. Additionally, it offers farmers seeds for a variety of millet species, including finger millet (ragi), tiny millet (bajra), sorghum, and pearl millet (bajra).

Currently, more than 500 companies are involved in creating the value chain, and the IIMR has fostered 250 up-and-coming firms as part of the agriculture ministry's flagship Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana-remunerative approaches for agriculture and allied sectors rejuvenation (RKVY-RAFTAAR) program.

According to a recent announcement from the department of consumer affairs, food, and public distribution in the parliament, the nation's millet production is anticipated to reach 20.5 million tonne (mt) in the 2022–23 crop year (July–June).

In the 2018–19 crop year, millets were produced at a rate of 13.71 mt. Sorghum, finger millets, tiny millets, and pearl millet each account for 60%, 27%, 11%, and 2% of total production, respectively.

Nutri cereals are being deployed in 212 areas across 14 states as part of the National Food Security Mission to increase production. The main millet-producing states are Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

In the meantime, the Center plans to purchase 1 MT of nutri-cereals from farmers in nine states during the current Kharif season. This was done in order to promote the cultivation and distribution of coarse grains through the public distribution system (October-September). In the coming years, the government plans to increase the acquisition of coarse grains through MSP operations to 4-5 mt.

According to official estimates, the shipment of nutri-cereals could reach $100 million by 2023–2024 from total exports of $64 million in 2021–2022.

With an estimated 41% share of global production, India is one of the world's top millets producers.

With the aim of increasing production and consumption, millets were rebranded as "Nutri cereals" in April 2018, and the government proclaimed it to be the national year of millets. The International Year of Millet is being recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 2023.

Millets are primarily grown in rainfed regions during the kharif season. These hardy and drought-tolerant crops need less water and agricultural inputs than wheat and rice do.