Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday organised a millet lunch for legislators and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the suggestion.
Raipur,UPDATED: Jan 5, 2023 03:45 IST
File photo of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel
By Sumi Rajappan: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel organised a lunch where all the dishes were made from millets in order to promote the Millet Mission. This lunch was served to all the legislators in the state’s legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
Among the dishes at lunch, ragi-pakoras, kodo-bhajiya, kutki-ke-fare and ragi halwa stood out and gained praises from speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, Dr Charan Das Mahant. After receiving rave reviews it was announced by the CM that a millet cafe will soon be opened in the ministry to further the mission in the right direction. “The country’s first Millet Bank has been started in Chhattisgarh where 22 types of millets are produced,” he added.
The Central Government has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets and the Chhattisgarh government has also taken a new initiative in Millets Year 2023. Since millet is produced in large quantities in Chhattisgarh, the state government has declared the support price of ‘Kodo Kutki’ at Rs. 3,000 per quintal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested that a millet cafe should be opened in Chhattisgarh to promote and streamline the millet production in the state. Also, Chhattisgarh government has launched the Millet Mission with an aim to become the millet hub of the country and it is the first state in the country to come up with such an initiative.
Under the mission, apart from adequate training to the farmers, accurate pricing will be given for the small cereal crops, it’s processing, procurement and overall production.
Millets included in mid-day meal
During his speech, the CM mentioned that “Millets have also been included in the mid-day meal scheme to eradicate malnutrition in the state. Children in schools are being given dishes made of millets in the mid-day meal, including cookies, laddoos and soya-chikki.”
He further added that “Chhattisgarh is the first state in the country that is procuring millet at the support price. Under this mission which is operated in 14 districts of the state, along with fixing the support price of Kodo-Kutki-Ragi, arrangements were also made for collection through women self-help groups under the Chhattisgarh Small Forest Produce Cooperative Union. Input subsidy is also being given to the farmers by including these crops under the ambit of the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana and farmers are being made aware by experts to increase productivity.”
