Mission to increase cultivation area, create demand at family level

Hyderabad: State Agricultural Commissioner Dr Jagan Mohan said that the main aim of ‘Millets Programme’ is to increase cultivated area and production of millets at a state-level meeting held at HACA Bhavan here on Monday.

He said that the programme also aimed to create demand for millets by increasing its usage at family level by 25 per cent. The commissioner said that encouraging the processing of millets from family level and encouraging units at panchayat and mandal level was the motto of the programme. The other aims of the programme include – encouraging women farmers to establish millet-based enterprises; improvement of marketing relations on millets between villages and towns; distribution of millets through State nutrition scheme (Anganwadi) and public supplies department.

The programme will be implemented in cooperation with WASSAN and ATMA will act as a nodal agency at district level. The annual budget for the programme is Rs 10.62 crore whereas Rs 64 crore for 5 years. The Commissioner said that Adilabad, Asifabad, Nagarkurnool, Mahabub Nagar, Vikarabad, Sangareddy districts were identified for implementation of the programme. Six mandals has been selected from each district, where as cultivation of millet has taken place in 200 acres and altogether the programme will be implemented in 7,200 acres in each identified district, he explained.

He also said that a two-day meeting would witness memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with companies and preparation of plan of action to implement the programme. Agricultural Commissionerate additional director K Vijay Kumar, deputy director Y Madhavi, representatives from various NGOs, project directors of ATMA from six districts were present.