Bhubaneswar: Dr Subroto Bagchi, Chief Advisor to the Government of Odisha’s Institutional Capacity Building chaired a meeting on the Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) and International Convention on Millets at 3rd floor Conference Hall of Krushi Bhawan in the presence of the Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment, Joint Director of Agriculture (OMM), Technical Expert, Scheme Officers and other officials of Odisha Millets Mission at 10 AM on 25th October 2023.
The meeting was organized to get expert advice from Dr Bagchi on various aspects and goals of the Odisha Millets Mission and the upcoming International Convention on Millets to be held on the 9th and 10th of November, 2023.
At the outset, Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment (DA&FE) welcomed the participants and presented the various key features of the OMM programme& notable achievements so far. Principal Secretary, DA&FE shared that Odisha Millets Mission has adopted the fork-to-farm approach to truly ground the programme for long-term success creating adequate demand at the consumer level so that the farmers are encouraged to go for millet cropping instead of conventionally commercial cereals. Dr.Bagchi was apprised of different incentives and benefits offered to millet farmers and women self-help groups of Mission Shakti. Principal Secretary, DA&FE mentioned the first-of-its-kind achievement of notifying 4 traditional millet landraces which was applauded by Dr.Bagchi. OMM focuses on stakeholders’ collaboration model for implementing the programme. He was also apprised of different activities being planned for the International Convention on Millets.
Dr.Bagchi praised various key milestones of the Odisha Millets Mission. He advised the OMM team to prepare a long-term statement of strategic intent for Odisha Millets Mission with 2030 and 2036 as target years. He also advised creating flexibility in the policies and guidelines so that suitable modifications may be done in due course of time to mitigate the challenges. He added that innovative methods such as agri-tourism, focusing on joyous aspects attached to millets to ingrain the consumption pattern in every household and engaging with eminent sports persons & other celebrities as millet brand ambassadors would be instrumental in the successful implementation of Odisha Millets Mission in the coming years. He suggested tapping into the energy and enthusiasm of ground-level YouTubers and grassroots-level organizations & millets ambassadors to popularize millets among larger sections of society. OMM should aim to present Odisha as a scalable model in India and abroad by institutionalizing these strategies.
It was decided to hold a session on a lecture by Dr Subroto Bagchi on Odisha Millets Mission and ICM on 1st November, 2023 at 10:30 AM. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by the Principal Secretary, DA&FE. Dr Bagchi expressed happiness over the work carried out by the entire team of Odisha Millets Mission and wished best wishes to the programme.
