In order to promote millets for healthy food and farming, a State-level workshop entitled “Millet for health and nutrition” was organised by NGO Nirman in collaboration with ActionAid here on December 30 last.
Several Government officials, local NGOs, nutritionists, media personnel, academicians, farmers and tribals attended the workshop. There were discussions regarding different aspects of millets and its nutritional and health value in society. Speaking on the occasion, Nirman executive director Prasant Mohanty said instead of comparing per yield production of millets with other crops, comparison should be made per kilocalories of nutrition production per acre. Millets has more advantage in nutritional production per acre in comparison with other cereals like rice and wheat. It goes with mixed farming system thereby conserving agro-biodiversity, he asserted.
Prof (Dr) SN Pasupalak of OUAT congratulated Nirman for its initiatives of reviving traditional farming like millet and thereby providing food security to the tribals. He also talked about the historical, climatic and nutritional value of millets in the society. Dr Balaram Sahoo of OUAT compared the traditional food system of China with India, saying that since China is promoting its traditional crops, its growth is faster than India. He also said that millets have anti-cold and anti-cancer properties. Former Chief Secretary Sahadeb Sahoo acknowledged the negligence of millet in the agricultural and food production policies.
He underscored the need for an urgent publicity and awareness programme for boosting millet cultivation. Researcher Pushpanjali Satpathy raised the issue of violation of land rights of the tribal farmers which is a stumbling block in traditional farming. Nutritionist from Kalinga Hospital Dr Sanjay Kumar Mishra depicted the multiple values of ‘raggi’, while Dr Snehalata Nanda from OUAT supported the inclusion of millets in mid-day meal and ICDS programmes and upscaling of millet based farming.