MP Plans To Make Millet Products, Sell Them With A Brand

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh government is planning to make millet products and sell them with a brand, officials said here on Tuesday.

Five millet products are going to be made by the ‘Sri Anna Federation’ and sold in the market with the brand named, “Narmada Millets’, officials said.

“The five products are currently undergoing quality tests. They will be produced in mass scale for marketing after the tests are done”, an officer of the federation said.

The five products, a value addition to millets, are flours of different millets to prepare ‘Idli’, ‘Dosa’, ‘Upama’, ‘Khichdi’, and biscuit, the officer said.

“The millets, procured from the farmers, are processed in the processing units established at different places in the state, for making the millet products to market them.

The key objective of the exercise is to involve the millet producing farmers in the food processing”, chief executive officer of the federation Balram Vishwakarma told the media here.

Farmers Producers Organizations (PFOs) are involved in the entire process.

The Madhya Pradesh government has declared procurement price for ‘Kutki (a small variety of millet rice)’ at Rs 3,500 per quintal and for ‘Kodo’ (coarse rice) at Rs 2,500 per quintal.

The federation has procured 3,000 tons of millet grains in the current season from around 4,000 millet growers in the state.

The two tribal-dominated districts of Dindori and Mandla in the Jabalpur division in the state, being the key millet producing region, is known as the ‘millet bowl’ of Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh is the seventh largest producer of millet crops in the country.

Rajasthan is the largest producer of millets in the country.