ROURKELA: The tribal-dominated Sundargarh has added another feather in its cap by emerging as the best performing district in Odisha for cultivation of millets. Sundargarh’s Nuagaon has also been adjudged the best performing block in Odisha while farmer Jyoti Dan of Kuanrmunda block bagged the second spot for non-ragi millet cultivation.
Chief district agriculture officer (CDAO) of Sundargarh Harihar Naik said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presented the awards during the two-day International Convention of Millets at Bhubaneswar on Friday. Sundargarh collector Parag Harshad Gavali received the awards. The awards were given basing on overall practices including area coverage, production, promotion, value addition and consumption.
The Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) was introduced in Sundargarh in 2018 with inclusion of four blocks under the state plan. In the next four years, eight more blocks were included under OMM with financial support from the District Mineral Foundation (DMF). From this year, three more blocks have resorted to millet cultivation under the state plan.
As of now, 15 of the total 17 blocks are being covered under OMM. Seven are being funded from the state plan while the rest are covered under DMF. Now, only Bisra and Koida blocks are left out of the OMM. Sources said in the recently-concluded kharif crop season, the district covered around 12,750 hectare (ha) of land with different varieties of millets with maximum cultivation of ragi variety. Non-ragi millets were cultivated over 1,300 ha with Sorghum occupying around 900 ha. Little millet, foxtail millet and Kodo millet varieties were cultivated over 25 ha to 160 ha.
Those in the know said millet cultivation in Sundargarh continues to be fraught with the challenge of enhancing crop yield per ha to make ragi cultivation profitable for farmers. Last year, the average production was around 4.8 quintal per ha.
They said around 70 per cent millet farmers do not follow the cluster and intensive farming approach and it remains the greatest challenge to enhance crop yield. To attract farmers towards cultivation of the highly-nutritious food grain, the district has been procuring ragi at the minimum support price.
Last year, the procurement target was around 30,000 quintal.Besides, the administration had set a target to open 81 kiosks for sale of foods and snacks made of millets. However, less than two dozens kiosks have been opened so far.