Central Budget leaves State’s millet growers, particularly ragi farmers, disappointed in the International Year of Millets

Ragi cultivation area which once accounted for about 1.2 million hectares in the State had now reduced to a range of six to seven lakh hectares, says an expert. | Photo Credit: File photo

Agricultural experts in Karnataka are disappointed that the Central Budget that was presented on Wednesday has not offered anything for the State’s millet farmers, particularly growers of ragi in which the State tops the country, though this happens to be the International Year of Millets.

The Central Budget has not mentioned any other concrete initiatives towards millets but for the statement that the Indian Institute of Millet Research in Hyderabad will be supported as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level to make India a global hub for “Shree Anna” (millets)

Former Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, during whose tenure Karnataka played a key role in convincing the Centre to write to international authorities to pitch for International Year of Millets, said the government should have announced an initiative for instilling confidence among farmers about market. They should have announced that any quantum of millets grown would be procured at MSP, he said.

Market assurance

Agriculture economist and former chairman of Karnataka Agriculture Prices Commission (KAPC) T.N. Prakash Kammaradi observed that the real constrain with respect to millets is their supply. Pointing out that millet cultivation area has dwindled, he stressed the need for implementing the recommendations by KAPC in 2018 that remunerative MSP should be provided to millets. This is where the Centre has to intervene, he maintained.

Observing that millet is still not the main choice of farmers for cultivation, he felt that a guaranteed market and assured remunerative prices would encourage farmers to take up their cultivation. He also called for identifying areas suitable for cultivation of different millets and taking up a pragmatic measure to encourage their cultivation.  

A. Sitharam, veteran scientist who has worked for nearly four decades in the field of research and promotion of millets in the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bengaluru, said that the Central Budget should have sanctioned a regional millet research station to the university now as the demand has been pending for more than 25 years. The university has more than 10,000 germplasm collections of millets that are highest for the country, he pointed out.

Shrinking area

He expressed concern that the ragi cultivation area which once accounted for about 1.2 million hectares in the State had now reduced to a range of six to seven lakh hectares while the cultivation area of minor millets has crashed from a level of more than two lakh hectares to just below one lakh hectares now. A regional research station on millets, particularly minor millets, would go a long way in expanding the cultivation area, he felt.