Karnataka initiative to promote ragi

​Patancheru: In a bid to brand ragi (finger millet) as a unique product, the Karnataka government has teamed up with International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat), Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and other private sector partners.

The long-term collaborative initiative is aimed at promoting all kinds of millets as a sustainable food system which is beneficial to both farmers as well as consumers.

During the national conference on “Popularizing millets through product development and branding Karnataka Ragi” held at ICRISAT campus at Patancheru on Friday, deliberations took place not only to create a demand pool for millets in the urban areas, but also to work on the supply aspect of it.

Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who was the chief guest, said Karnataka was rapidly progressing towards increasing the production of millets by giving extra incentives to farmers in the form of giving bonus price on top of minimum support price for producing millets, by procuring the entire harvest from farmers and by introducing the same into their public distribution systems as an alternative to rice.

“Millets can stand drought situations, they fit into climate-smart atmosphere, they are smart on account of ecological footprint and climate change, they become quality fodder for live stock and have the potential to bring own health costs down in the country. This is the reason why we all need to work together and promote millets,” he later told the media.

Production of Ragi (finger millet) is 65- 70 per cent of total farm produce of Karnataka and is of high quality, the reason why efforts are being made to brand Ragi, he said.

According to Icrisat Director-General David Bergvinson, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of doubling the income from farm produce was possible only by transforming the agricultural sector through diversification of income by encouraging biodiversity in agricultural production.

He also pointed out that millets had three times the amount of calcium than that of milk, which was good for pregnant women and that production of millets didn’t require too many inputs as in the case of paddy or other cash crops.

IIMR principal scientist Dayakar Rao new ways to increase the shelf-life of millets was already in place and that time has to concentrate on processing and packaging of products.

“The goal of the conference is to find means to take millets to the public. We need to shift our focus from supply-based research to demand-chain research,” he added.

The idea of the conference was not only to promote Karnataka’s Ragi, but to promote Maharashtra’s sorghum and millets from different states.

According to Krishna Byre Gowda, currently AP, TN, Karnataka and Maharashtra combined, the total business from millets was more than Rs 100 Crore. “What we are collectively attempting to do may not yield results in a year or two.

But through our efforts, medium and long-term solutions for the benefit of farmers as well as the consumers can be found,” he said.