In the General Budget 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made a big announcement regarding the production of coarse grains. The Finance Minister has decided to make the Millets Institute a Center of Excellence to promote the production of Millets i.e. coarse grains in India, the largest producer of coarse grains, and to supply them internationally. center of excellence
Raipur/Hyderabad: In order to make India a global center in Millets Research, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced to make Millets Institute a Center of Excellence. Presenting the general budget, the Finance Minister said that “the government is taking big steps to increase the production of millets like Kodo, Ragi, Bajra, Jowar, Saman, Kuttu, Ramdana etc. Will provide financial assistance to one crore farmers in a year to adopt natural farming.
Farmers will be trained to increase production: The Finance Minister said that “ the Millets Institute will not only work on the possibilities of increasing the production of millets, but will also train farmers to grow millets.” The Finance Minister has also announced to increase the target of agricultural loans this time. Agriculture credit target will be increased to Rs 20 lakh crore with focus on dairy and fisheries. Every kind of cooperation will be extended to make Millets Institute a center of excellence.
Biggest initiative in Chhattisgarh regarding millets processing: Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had inaugurated the country’s largest capacity millet plant in Kanker’s village Nathianwagaon in October 2022 under the Millets Mission. Here Kodo Kutki and Ragi are processed with 7 types of machines and food grains such as oatmeal, semolina, flour, vermicelli, pasta, soup mix, biscuits, cookies, laddoos etc. will be packaged and sold in the national and international markets. This will directly benefit 25 thousand farmers of the state. They will easily get a reasonable price for their produce. Chhattisgarh government has fixed the support price of Ragi at Rs.33.70 per kg, Kodo and Kutki at Rs.30 per kg.
Nutrition is better than wheat rice: Millet is a whole grain. The nutritional content of millet is high. This includes jowar, ragi, kodo, kutki, kakun, sawa, china, kuttu and chaulai. It is nutritionally superior to wheat and rice due to its higher protein levels and more balanced amino acid profile. Millets crop requires less water. It can be cultivated in poor soil and hilly areas. Millets contain carbohydrates, proteins and minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese and zinc.
