Bhubaneswar: A meeting on preparation, distribution and procurement of millets under Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Shree Anna Abhiyan was held under the chairmanship of the department’s Principal Secretary Arabinda Kumar Padhee here recently. The state government is committed to promoting grains like millet in the face of climate change, said Padhee.
At the meeting, Odisha State Supply Corporation Managing Director Sudarshan Chakravarthy and Agriculture and Food Production Director Shubham Saxena were present, along with other senior officers of Food Corporation of India (FCI), Odisha Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation Limited, and the Agriculture department.
Various steps were discussed to facilitate this year’s millet procurement programme and the department’s approach to include maximum farmers in the scheme. “District Collectors have been instructed to be vigilant so that unscrupulous traders do not take advantage of this assistance,” emphasised the officials. The meeting also focused on the distribution of procured millet through various state government schemes and supply to Central Reserve through the FCI. It is worth noting that 7,58,000 quintals of millet were procured last year, and for the first time, more than one lakh quintals of millet have been exported to Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar.