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Karnataka accelerates expansion of Raithasiri to propel cultivation of nutra-cereals.
Jan 05, 2024

The Karnataka government now calls on to nourish the future with millets & organics. It is encouraging the cultivation of millets among farmers, food processors, marketers and consumers. The Raithasiri scheme, which was introduced in 2019-2020, benefitted 100,604 farmers with the financial expenditure of Rs 81.54 crore since inspection, it is working to expand cultivated areas to accelerate exports.

In the state Budget announcement 2020-21, the Raithasiri programme was envisaged to focus on high nutrient value crops like chia, quinoa and teff, which were included.

There is considerable encouragement to millet farmers. This has enhanced the cultivation of these nutra-cereals like foxtail millet, little millet, Indian barnyard millet, kodo millet, brown-top millet and proso millet, according to Karnataka Minister for Agriculture N Chaluvarayaswamy.

With all efforts to conduct fifth edition of Millets and Organics, 2024 – International Trade Fair, organised by the Department of Agriculture, Government of Karnataka from January 5-7, 2024, in the Palace Grounds in Bengaluru, he said that this will be a platform for farmers, farmer groups, domestic and international companies, Central and state institutions in the organic and millet sector to connect and explore opportunities in agri-horticulture, processing, machinery and agri-technology.

The nodal agency for the three-day Millets & Organics International Trade Fair 2024 is the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Processing & Export Corporation (KAPPEC).

The state has been a leader in the promotion of organics and millets with the First Organics and Millets trade fair being held in 2017, and subsequently the second, third and fourth editions in 2018, 2019 and 2023 respectively in Bengaluru.

Noting that millets need to be popularised because they are the traditional foods for more than half a billion people in Asia and Africa, he said that the state government had noticed the paucity of modern processing facilities as one of the major drawbacks in the processing of millets. Here the state intends to support the setting of millet processing units besides facilitating market linkages for millets grown in the state.

Further, production incentive of Rs 10,000 per hectare based on the crop survey data to encourage farmers cultivating millet has been done through the Union government’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT). Besides, the government has also helped in the distribution of 21,840.92 quintiles of ragi or finger millet which ranks sixth in production after wheat, rice, maize, sorghum and bajra in India. In the case of other millets, the government has distributed 999.24 quintiles of bajra, 132.33 quintiles of sorghum and 53.53 quintiles of foxtail millet or navane seeds to the farmers during the Kharif year 2023.

Since processing of millets is still a challenge and its processed products have poor shelf life hence encouragement is given at the farm gate level.

In the case of organics, Karnataka ranks eighth in the country in terms of organic area of 82,015.56 hectare and fourth in terms of total certified organic annual production of 237091.45 million tonne as per the APEDA(Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) statistics.

The ultimate objective of the state government is to popularise 'organic produce and millets as traditional super foods to nourish the future generations,' said the department of agriculture officials.

fnbnews.com

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