ROURKELA: In a setback to millet farmers of Sundargarh district, the procurement target for ragi (finger millet) in the kharif marketing season (KMS) 2025-26 would be significantly reduced to 48,000 quintal from last year’s 66,433 quintal.
This was decided at the state-level conference for rabi campaign 2025-26 in Bhubaneswar on October 24, which fixed procurement target for all millets-producing districts including Sundargarh. The reduction in the target has been chiefly attributed to technical reasons associated with the Digital Crop Survey (DCS) and resistance to the mobile-based system in many pockets of the district.
In Sundargarh, about 11,000 tribal farmers, mostly small and marginal, are into cultivation of millets in 15 blocks of the district. Sources privy to the Shree Anna Abhiyan (SAA) informed that in Sundargarh, cultivation of all millets were programmed over 14,550 hectare (ha) of which around 13,700 ha were covered under the scheme. Accordingly, around 11,000 ha were taken up for ragi cultivation under SAA and the rest around 2,700 ha were covered with small millets.
Conducted between August and October, the DCS covered around 5,555 ha of ragi-bearing areas along with 3,600 ha of ragi-bearing land distributed under the Forest Rights Act (FRA)-2006. The survey could not be conducted on around 1,845 ha of ragi-bearing farmland in mining-affected blocks including Kutra, Kuanrmunda, Rajgangpur, Hemgir, Gurundia, Bargaron, Balishankara and Subdega due to prevalence of the ‘Pathalgadi’ practice under the PESA Movement.
‘Pathalgadi’ involves fixing of carved stone slabs to indicate village boundaries to assert autonomy and claim self-rule to protect land and resources. The tribal villagers of these blocks reportedly did not allow the DCS, fearing that the survey would be conducted with an aim to take away their lands. Besides, in bordering villages, the survey was affected due to technical glitch with the relevant app showing location results for Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
Chief district agriculture officer LB Mallick said it appeared that the ragi cultivation area has reduced in the DCS. “The target received from the government would be finalised in the district-level procurement committee meeting,” he added.
It is learnt that ragi procurement would start from January 1 next year at an enhanced MSP of Rs 4,886 per quintal.