Shree Anna must be present on our food plate to ensure that nutrients are present in sufficient quantities. Tomar made the remarks as the chief guest at the two-day National Millets Conference, which was hosted by Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University in Jabalpur as part of the International Year of Millets.
According to Tomar, millets are produced as a specialty product around the world. Millets' share of the food plate has decreased over time, and they have lost their competitive edge. Efforts are being made to reintroduce and expand the use of millets. Under India's leadership, the entire world is commemorating 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will formally launch it on March 18th at an International Conference in New Delhi. Aside from that, G-20 meetings are scheduled to take place in approximately 50 cities across the country this year, with approximately two lakh foreign visitors expected.
Under the directions of the Prime Minister, a plan has been prepared for the promotion of millets through G-20 meetings. Priority is being given to millets in food in all G-20 programmes, so that when these people return to their country, they take good taste of food from here and India's Shree Anna gains new recognition in the world. This will benefit both our farmers and the country.
According to Tomar, the millets crop is rain-fed, which means it can be grown for less money and with less water. It can be grown by poor farmers on barren land. The more millets are used, the more nutrients are available in the food, which benefits people. If the global use of millets increases, so will processing and exports, which will benefit small farmers and eventually help improve their financial situation. This International Year of Millets is critical in this regard.
Three National Centers of Excellence have been established in Haryana, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru to increase research on this topic in the country, through which much work is being done. There are approximately 2000 startups in the agriculture sector, the majority of which are related to millets. Our country exported agricultural products worth more than Rs 4 lakh crore, the majority of which are organic and millets.
Lauding the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru Agricultural University in promoting agriculture in Madhya Pradesh and transforming it into a soya-growing state, he added that the University is also working on vanishing millets crops, an area that needs to be doubled up. In the program, Member of Parliament, V.D. Sharma, State Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel and Vice Chancellor Prof. Pramod Kumar Mishra were among the dignitaries present.
