-Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Millets are considered as smart crops that are resilient to climate stress and have nutritional advantages. Odisha’s initiative in millets, from farm to plates, has been intervening through four verticals in production (with new agronomic practices), processing, marketing and consumption (includes awareness campaigns and also through inclusion in nutritional programmes). Odisha also started procurement of mandia/ragi (finger millet) since 2018-19. These have important lessons for other states in...

-TheNewsMinute.com Due to poverty and dependence on government rations, the communities had become malnourished and prone to several non-communicable diseases. But they soon realised that the solution to their woes was in their past. Three years ago, officials of the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary at Idukki in Kerala conducted a medical camp for the tribal natives residing in the sanctuary. While the officials were expecting to see widespread malnutrition and related ailments, the...

-Hindustan Times The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or coarse cereal production, mostly grown by small and poor farmers New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has decided to include millets in the public distribution system for which it is procuring these grains at federally fixed minimum support prices, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said. The agriculture ministry has started a new programme to focus on millets or...

-The New Indian Express NUAPADA: The State Government has decided to introduce traditional small millets to feed children at anganwadi centres in the district shortly. This will replace the ‘Sattu’, a mixture of Bengal gram flour, wheat and other cereals, being served to the children and which has run into controversy after insect and foreign bodies were found in the old stock of the food.A preparatory meeting, chaired  by Zilla Parishad...

-Down to Earth India requires policy changes to make millets an effective tool against malnutrition Nutrient-rich millets, which have been a crucial part of human diet since ancient times, have lost their importance due to globally commercialised agronomic practices to produce more foodgrains. Though awareness has been growing among the public in the recent years about the health benefits of a millet-based diet—high fibre, low carbohydrate, protein-rich and gluten-free—gaps persist on several...