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Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Feb. 5

ITC’s noted farmers network – choupals – will experiment a model that is aimed at bringing back millets into the nation’s food chain again.

ITC’s International Business Division (IBD) has joined hands with National Research Centre for Sorghum, an Indian Council of Agricultural Research constituent, to encourage farmers to grow millets.

The programme is being taken up under the Rs 1,200-crore World Bank-funded National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP).

Millet acreage has fallen to just 9 million hectares from 18 million hectares a few decades ago. This reduced emphasis on these nutrient-rich millets is largely attributed to the excessive emphasis on rice and wheat, particularly in the public distribution system.

The association is also aimed at offering high-yielding varieties, providing them with better farm management techniques and market linkages.

A pilot project would be taken up in two districts of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to develop a model that could complete a production-to-consumption network.

“We will take up 500 acres each in Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh) and Parbani (Maharashtra) in the kharif and rabi seasons. Over all, we will cover 50,000 villages,” said Mr K. Nirmal Reddy, General Manager (Commodities).

Talking to newspersons on the sidelines of a workshop to discuss the programme, he said the pilot would encourage the farmers to grow high-yielding sorghum and employ better management practices.

ITC’s practice of buy-back of the produce too, would help them to get rid of the intermediaries and earn more income.

Dr J.P. Mittal, National Coordinator, NAIP, said the Rs 5.8-crore project idea was accepted keeping in mind the diminishing area of millets in the country.

More Stories on : Cultivation | Pulses | I T C Ltd

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