BHUBANESWAR: After the success of Make-in-Odisha 3.0 organised in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), the state government has roped in the apex industry body to conduct a series of activities and promote millets globally.
As the UN general assembly has declared 2023 as the international year of millets (IYOM), Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) has planned to organise a series of activities to commemorate the opportunity and spread the importance and benefits of millets across the globe.
The Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment department on Tuesday inked a pact with FICCI to take up various activities throughout the year. FICCI will render necessary end-to-end help, support and services for the events related to IYOM 2023 planned this year.
As per the collaboration, the department will provide and facilitate necessary and incidental support to FICCI in terms of approvals, advisory and resources for the events, including review and monitoring of activities regularly. Sources said FICCI will collaborate with several agencies including event management, knowledge and research partners appointed by the department to execute the works.
Director of agriculture and food production Prem Chandra Choudhary and assistant secretary general of FICCI Mousumi Ghose signed the MoU documents in the presence of Agriculture Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain and principal secretary Arabinda Kumar Padhee.
Launched in 2017, OMM is a flagship programme of the Odisha government to revive millets in farms and on plates. Moved by the mission benefits, the Centre has already asked all states to adopt the Odisha model for the promotion of millets.
A task force has been set up at the national level to understand the framework of the OMM and to revise the national mission on millets. Cambridge University has also partnered with the state to explore the possibility of OMM as an alternative to the green revolution framework.