HYDERABAD: Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, has declared that India would take a leading position in production of millets, stating that it it’s due to India’s initiative that the United Nations declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the two-day Nutri-Cereal Multi-Stakeholders’ Mega Convention 3.0 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) on Friday, he urged the younger generation to make millets part of their daily diet, as steps were being taken to achieve nutrition security along with food security in India.
Explaining Centre’s packages under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore to fill gaps in the agriculture sector, he said the government was going to spend Rs 6,850 crore to setup 10,000 new Farmers’ Producing Organisations (FPOs), which would result in the transformation of 86 per cent of farmers’ lives.
He also spoke about the Special Mission launched for oilseeds and oil palm cultivation, from which the farmers in Telangana could greatly benefit, observing that the land in Telangana was suitable for cultivation of those crops.He opined that the new farm laws were enacted to encourage the next generation to invest in agriculture and to ensure profitable yields for the crops.
At the event, he visited various stalls of startups and interacted with farmers and biodiversity groups.The objective of the two-day convention, which is being organised by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR) IIMR, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN and the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India; is to prepare blueprint of series of events planned to celebrate the International Year of Millets, 2023, as declared by the UN.