The Union Government has recently sanctioned Rs 3 crore for the nutri-cereals programme in Telangana under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) for the year 2022-23. This programme aims to promote and increase the production and productivity of millets such as pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet, and small millets including foxtail millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, proso millet, little millet, and two pseudo millets such as Buckwheat and Amaranthus. The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been implementing a Sub-Mission on Nutri-Cereals (Millets) under NFSM since 2018-19 to achieve this objective.
Interestingly, the Union Government has sanctioned Rs 7.47 crore to Gujarat and a whopping Rs 60.43 crore to Karnataka under NFSM for the same programme in 2022-23. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar shared this information in Lok Sabha on Tuesday while answering a question by BRS MP Manne Srinivas Reddy. He also mentioned that India is the largest producer and seventh largest exporter of “Shree Anna” as of 2021.
Currently, NFSM-Nutri-Cereals (Millets) is being implemented in different districts of 14 states. North Eastern and Hilly States have been given flexibility to implement the programme as per their requirement. To make India a global hub for ‘Shree Anna,’ the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) is being supported as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research, and technologies at the international level.
