Fostering the Millet Revolution, Yogi government has ambitious plans
Lucknow: To make sure that nutritious food is available to all, dishes made of jowar, bajra, sawa, kodon, ragi, madua etc. will be brought to the minstream. After the impact on the immunity of the general public during the Corona crisis, experts have thought about the nutritional value of millets.
The Yogi Adityanath government will spend Rs 200 crore on coarse grains. When research and studies started, it was found that the increasing cultivation of wheat and rice in the name of Green Revolution has made coarse grains disappear from the plate of the people. Once upon a time these coarse grains used to be the main food items of the people.
In the name of Green Revolution, the need of food grains was fulfilled, but nutrition took a beating, new diseases increased.
Continuous consumption of coarse grains keeps effective control on diabetes, stomach related diseases, heart related diseases. People are starting to understand this thing again.
Keeping this in mind, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to spend Rs 186.27 crore (January 2023- 2026-27) on the Coarse Cereals Revival Program.
In the year 2021-22, production of coarse cereals crops has been estimated in a total area of 10.83 lakh hectare. In this, the area of Bajra, Jowar, Kodo and Sava was 9.05, 1.71, 0.02, 0.05 lakh hectare respectively. The Yogi government has set a target of increasing their sowing area to 25 lakh hectares by 2026-27.
Rs 7.20 crore will be spent on seed production
For seed production of coarse cereals, the government will provide seed money at the rate of Rs 4 lakh per FPO to a total of 180 farmer producer organizations from the year 2023-24 to 2026-27. Due to this, seeds of various crops of Miletus will be available to the farmers at the local level in the state in future. An expenditure of Rs 7.20 crore will be incurred on this program in four years.
2.9 lakh farmers will learn advanced farming methods
To increase the area and production of coarse grains, various types of awareness programs will be run from the state to the block level. Under this, 72,500 farmers will be trained every year regarding better methods of cultivation of coarse. In this way a total of 2.9 lakh farmers will be benefited in four years. In this way, an expenditure of Rs 111.50 crore will be incurred in four years on capacity building and promotion of Millets crops.
Emphasis on processing
From the year 2023-24 to the year 2026-27, a total of 55 millets processing, packing cum marketing centers will be set up in the state for value addition. The cost of one unit is estimated at Rs 95 lakh. For the establishment of 25 units, 100 percent grant will be made available to Agricultural Universities and Agricultural Science Centers. For the establishment of 30 units, 50 percent grant will be given to Farmer Producer Organization and entrepreneurs of the total fixed cost. About Rs 38 crore will be spent on this project in due time.
