BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Millets Mission (OMM), a programme aimed at enhancing the production of nutritious millet, has entered its second year in four blocks of Sundargarh district in this Kharif season.
The Agriculture department hopes to include the rest 13 blocks of the district in the programme soon. In a bid to revive cultivation of millet and increase its consumption, Kutra, Rajgangpur, Nuagaon and Kuanrmunda blocks were included in the ‘Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas’ under OMM.
District coordinator of OMM Arpan Das said in the second year of the five-year OMM programme, a target has been fixed to cover 2,049 hectare land in the four blocks.
He said last year, around 600 hectare land in the four blocks were covered and 494 quintal millet was procured from farmers.
Das said in Kutra, Nuagaon and Kuanrmunda blocks, only Ragi (Mandia) is being cultivated while in Rajgangpur, in addition to Ragi, other varieties like Foxtail Millet, Sorghum and small millet are being grown.
He said the focus is on improving productivity through better agronomic practices and organic inputs, enhancing household consumption, ensuring market support to millet farmers and increasing millet availability for State Nutrition Programme. Efforts are underway to earmark locations for setting up millet processing units. Under OMM, beneficiaries are also trained in making various valued-added edible products.
Sundargarh Deputy Director of Agriculture (DDA) R N Satpathy said through Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation of Odisha Ltd (TDCC), it has been targeted to procure a minimum of 2,000 quintals of millet this kharif season. He said awareness is being spread in other blocks on the procurement policy of millet. Satpathy said the highly nutritious millet forms a substantial part of diet and cropping system in the tribal areas.
He said millet requires less water and it is resilient to climate vulnerability. Due to erratic rainfall pattern, the district faces increased risk of paddy crop failure and millet cultivation is a safe option for farmers.
Besides, it can also address nutrition deficiency in farming community.