Agriculture scientists attached to the Krishi Vignan Kendras of Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University from across AP expressed serious concern at the drastic fall in human consumption of millets despite good yields. They said this phenomenon is discouraging the farmers willing to take up millets farming, leading substantial decrease in the acreage by more than 50 percent during the last one decade.
The scientists were addressing about two thousand farmers from across the state who converged at the one-day Millet Festival jointly organised by the ANGRAU and Indian council for Agriculture research (ICAR) at Ambedkar bhavan here on Friday. The organisers also opened food courts with dishes made of millets and exhibition stalls with various kinds of millets.
Co-ordinator of state government mooted Yeruvaka project and Krishi Vignan Kendra (Kalikiri) S. Rajasekhar Naidu said that it is hightime the farmers came forward to take up large-scale millet farming and bring back the lost glory to the neglected food sector. He deplored that the acreage of Ragi crop had come down to just 37,000 acres in the state, a dip by over 70 percent in a decade. Some of the most important varieties of millets known for their advantages to the diabetic population like korra, aarika, variga and oodhalu were fast disappearing from the fields due to lack of proper marketing for them.
The ANGRAU extension director K. Raja Reddy said that the agricultural scientists were doing their best to develop high yield technics for millet farmers, besides encouraging farming without chemicals and fertilizers. He sought the farmers to adopt millet farming with scientific methods. He felt that it is the responsibility of the intellectuals and expert dieticians to educate the farmers and general public as well about importance of millets for human consumption, and warn against the health risks due to growing changes in lifestyle if millets are ignored.
ZP chairperson Geervani, MLC BN Rajasimhulu, senior scientists from Tirupati, Vizag, Vijayawada, and Hyderabad took part in the Millet Mela.
