NEW DELHI, Aug 17:
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday held a meeting with his ministry officials to plan the celebration of International Year of Millets in 2023.
The United Nations (UN) has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, acting on India’s proposal.
“The proposals for activities to be undertaken to celebrate the International Year of Millets were discussed in detail in the meeting today,” an official statement said.
The government will organise events in India as well as in other countries. A series of programmes will be organised throughout the year, it said.
For this, cooperation of state governments, local administration of all districts, urban bodies, MPs and other public representatives from across the country will also be taken, it added.
In the meeting, Tomar said the government has taken several steps to boost production of millets. The country even celebrated in 2018 as national year of millets and notified them as nutritious cereals giving an ‘unique identity’.
As a result, millet production in India has risen to 176 lakh tonne in 2020-21 crop year (July-June) from 164 lakh tonne in 2017-18 crop year, he said.
The minister said 96 high-yielding, disease-resistant, including 10 nutritive-cereal crops and three biofortified varieties have been released.
Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal, ICAR Director General Trilochan Mohapatra and other senior officials were present in the meeting. (PTI)
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