Millet Revolution brewing in Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow: Shri anna (millets or coarse grains) will become the support of small farmers. Not only financially, but also in terms of health. Small and marginal farmers come in the bracket of small farmers. Their number is the maximum. They have relatively less resources. Due to this, many of them have to face the crisis of agricultural investment during the sowing season.
Due to lack of investment according to the crop, there is an impact on the yield and income. Weather strikes separately. The solution to all their problems is the cultivation of disease-resistant coarse cereals (Bajra, Jowar, Sava, Kodo, Madua etc.) in all types of land, in very less time and less cost.
This is the reason why the state government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is laying special emphasis on the cultivation of coarse grains in view of the International Millet Year-2023 and in the interest of the majority farmers of the state.
About a week ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at the Global SreeAnn Conference held in Delhi that 2.5 crore small-marginal farmers of the country would be benefited by the cultivation of Sree Anna. It is natural that agriculture-dominated Uttar Pradesh will get maximum benefit from this initiative.
A big reason for this is Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s personal interest in agriculture and the possible benefit of the farmers. As far as agriculture is concerned in Uttar Pradesh, according to the 2021 census, the population here was around 20 crore.
Out of this, 15.53 crore (75 percent) people live in about 11 lakh villages of the state. Naturally, this number would have also increased according to the increasing population. More than 90 percent farmers of the state come under the small-marginal category. In such a situation, the cultivation of Shrianna can increase the ‘Shri’ of these farmers to some extent according to its name.
This is also the intention of the Yogi government. Free distribution of minikits of better yielding and disease resistant seeds to such farmers. 50 percent subsidy on similar seeds to general farmers. Aggressive publicity campaign on every platform of media to make people aware of the merits of these grains. Programs like ‘Eat Millet’ focusing on coarse grains are a link to this.
The government has already announced to buy them at the minimum support price in order to give them a reasonable price to the farmers after production. In the districts where their acreage will be up to a certain limit, purchase centers will be set up for their purchase.
As far as health is concerned, according to the State of Fund and Nutrition in the World Report-2022, about 770 million people in the world are facing the challenge of malnutrition. The number of such people in India is about 224 million. According to Dr. Trupti Dubey, Senior Gynecologist, Apollo Hospital, Navi Mumbai says – , “Malnutrition is the biggest cause of premature deaths. Such deaths in productive age have an impact on the productivity and economy of the concerned person’s home, society and country. Malnutrition also plays an important role in the health of women and children, infant and maternal mortality during childbirth. In such a situation, every initiative to remove malnutrition should be welcomed.
