To boost production and incentivising farming, a parliamentary panel on Monday recommended expanding the distribution of millets or coarse grains – jowar, bajra and ragi addition to rice and wheat under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other social welfare schemes including Integrated Child Development Services and Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shkati Nirmal (PM-Poshan).
“The beneficiaries of different schemes should be given the option to bundle millets along with wheat and rice within their entitled quantity,” the standing committee on food, consumer affairs and public distribution in its report titled ‘coarse grains production and distribution,’ presented to Lok Sabha said.
The panel has also suggested setting up at least one shop initially selling exclusively millets and its products preferably by Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Tribes India, self-help groups especially run by women, etc in every district of the country.
The panel also noted that procurement of coarse grains by government agencies which was only 70,462 tonne in 2017-18 has witnessed a nine-fold increase to 0.63 million tonne (MT) in 2022-23.
In the current year around 1 MT of nutri-cereals would be procured from the farmers from Haryana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, according to a food ministry official.
The offtake of coarse grains for distribution under the public distribution system which was confined to only Haryana and Maharashtra in 2017-18 has increased to nine states – Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu in the last fiscal.
Last fiscal, 0.58 MT of coarse cereals were distributed under NFSA against only 73,00 tonne of nutri cereals distributed to the beneficiaries in 2014-15.
Karnataka is currently aiming at increasing millet procurement and consumption in the next three years up to 50% NFSA allocation of grain from the current level of 20%.
The NFSA stipulates monthly distribution of 5 kg of foodgrains – rice, wheat and coarse cereals per head to 800 million beneficiaries. However, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state agencies only procure rice and wheat for distribution under the public distribution system.
At present, around 54 MT of rice and wheat annually are distributed to NFSA beneficiaries. FCI and state agencies purchase foodgrains under MSP operation mostly from Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Currently, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Assam, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh have launched state-specific millet missions for increasing output.
In April 2018, millets were rebranded as ‘nutri cereals’ and the government declared it the national year of millets with the objective of generating more production and consumption. The United Nations General Assembly is celebrating 2023 as the International Year of Millet.
The minimum support price (MSP) for five coarse grains – jowar , bajra, ragi, maize and barley has increased by 108%, 100 %, 148%, 59 % and 50% respectively during a period of 10 years, according to food ministry data.