Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurates the National Conference on Millets
Union Minister of State for M/o Food Processing Industries, Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the National Conference on Millets on the theme ‘The Future Super Food for India’ in New Delhi on 23 June, organised by industry body ASSOCHAM with the support of M/o Food Processing Industries. The conference has been organised to discuss opportunities and challenges in ensuring food and nutritional security.
In his inaugural address, the Union Minister said that the production of coarse cereals in the country has increased to 17.96 million tonnes in 2020-21 from 14.52 million tonnes in 2015-16 and the production of bajra (pearl millet) has also increased to 10.86 million tonnes in the same period.
Patel noted that the Government of India has already revised the guidelines to facilitate the movement of the surplus production of millets to other states. The provision of inter-state transportation of surplus millets through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is incorporated to cater for advance demands placed by consuming states before the start of procurement.
The major millets producing states in India include Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana.
Minhaj Alam, Joint Secretary, M/o Food Processing Industries talked about spreading awareness of millets all around the globe as India is now the 5th largest exporter of millets globally. He informed that year 2023 will be the international year of millets that will create value generation and promotion of sustainable products in food choices. He added that more investments are required in production and processing of millets.
Image credit- PIB