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A two-day conclave on millets with the theme of “Making Many Millet Magnets - Making Many Millet Entrepreneurs’’ was organised jointly by NABARD and University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Raichur, Karnataka on 26th and 27th August 2022.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman graced the occasion along with Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar; Chief Minister of Karnataka Shri Basavaraj Bommai; Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Sushri Shobha Karandlaje; Shri B.C. Patil, Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka; other ministers of Govt. of Karnataka, Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative assembly.

The conclave was a curtain raiser for International Year of Millets, 2023 for taking actions in line with the announcement of the Finance Minister in her Budget speech to support post-harvest value addition, enhancing domestic consumption and branding of millet products nationally and internationally and to make the state of Karnataka pre-eminent in millet production & processing and setting up the best practices to help both the farmers and the consumers alike to enable other states follow suit.

The event began with a pre conclave consultation with experts by NABARD on 23rd August 2022 followed by two day event at UAS, Raichur on 26-27 August 2023.

The Conclave presented an opportunity to stake holders to display and market their products in an Exhibition and an interaction of participating Ministers with stakeholders on issues and way forward for promotion of millets.

During the event a Millet exhibition with 50 stalls was set up to showcase various products by farmers, Farmer Producers Organisations, millet processors, millet start-ups etc to create awareness & interest in millets.

Around 1,000 participants including farmers, women SHGs, FPOs, students, agri-startups, scientists, millet processors, policy makers, Government officials, Bankers and other financial institutions actively participated in the event.

Technical sessions involving experts in various fields in Millet ecosystem were held and issues across millet value chain covering millet farming, millet processing, millet financing, and millets in nutritional security etc were discussed.

During the conclave, NABARD presented the strategy for taking forward the budget announcement into actions in a run up to Celebrate the International Year of Millets 2023. The major recommendations of the conclave include: -

• massive awareness campaigns on millets in health and nutrition,

• increasing the millet producing area by incentivising farmers for millet cultivation,

• encouraging millet entrepreneurs, FPOs, millet start-ups for setting up decentralised processing units,

• investment in millet research.

The Finance Minister acknowledged that this conclave is the first step towards increasing millets production in the country and announced various measures to support millet production. The Finance Minister highlighted seven points on why more and more focus should be on Millets production:

1. Nutritional Security

2. Atma-Nirbhar Bharat

3. Women participation

4. Scope of Value addition

5. Employment generation

6. Start-up environment

7. Climate resilience

The Union Finance Minister announced a funding of Rs 25 crore by NABARD under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) to UAS, Raichur, to complement the efforts of the Government of Karnataka for establishment of Millet Value Chain Park, incubation centre for processing and value-addition and capacity-building for promotion of millet cultivation and nutritional security. Smt. Sitharaman also announced that Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) under NITI Aayog, with University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Raichur as its field partner, will conduct a Millet Challenge to provide a platform to promote research & innovation, stimulate overall innovation, increase competitiveness of Indian start-ups and SMEs and improve profitability of millet farming.

The Millet Challenge will award seed grant of -

1. Rs 1 crore each to three winners

2. Rs 20 lakhs to 15 selected candidates

3. Rs 10 lakhs to 15 other selected candidates.

The Finance Minister virtually inaugurated the Centre of Excellence on Integrated Farming System and related infrastructure created by UAS, Raichur.

Union Minister for Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, said that DA&FW has initiated promotion of millets with the landmark programme viz., Sub Mission on Nutri Cereals as a part of National Food Security Mission. He exhorted the stakeholders to utilise various incentives under the Mission.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Sushri Shobha Karandlaje highlighted the importance of millets in food and nutritional security and climate resilience. She called for support and celebration of International Year of Millets, 2023 by all stakeholders.

In conclusion, the conclave provided a platform to various stakeholder to deliberate on developing a road map for promotion of millet for income security to farmers and nutritional security for all and come out with feasible action points to take forward the agenda for International Year of Millets.

 

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