Nirmesh Singh
New Delhi, 16 Nov 2022

The Assam government on Wednesday launched “Assam Millet Mission”. It was inaugurated by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

“Launched Assam Millet Mission, targeted to raise nutrition quotient & doubling farmers’ income. To increase productivity, it will also contribute in crop diversification”, Chief Minister tweeted.

“Distributed power tillers, pump sets, mini trucks, harvesters, crop seeds, financial aids among beneficiaries,” he added.

The chief minister also inaugurated six soil testing and quality control labs, and two knowledge centres, which will help the state become self-sufficient in agriculture.

The Millets are a rich source of Protein, Fibre, Minerals, Iron, Calcium and have a low glycemic index.  India celebrated 2018 as The National Year of Millets. On behest of India’s proposal to United Nations that got support of 72 countries, United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA) declared 2023 as International Year of Millets in March, 2021

Government of India is popularizing nutri-cereals through Research & Development support and has established 3 Centres of Excellence (CoE). Support is also given to start-ups and entrepreneurs for developing recipes & value-added products that promotes consumption of millets. 8 bio-fortified varieties/hybrids of Bajra have been released for cultivation from 2018 to till Feb 2022.

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