Centre sanctions Rs 3 crore for Telangana’s ‘nutri cereals programme’

Hyderabad: The Central government sanctioned Rs 3 crore under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) for Telangana’s nutri cereals programme 2022-2023.

However, Rs 7.47 crore to Gujarat under NFSM and a whopping Rs 60.43 crore to Karnataka in 2022-23 were sanctioned by the centre.

Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar while replying to a question by BRS MP Manne Srinivas Reddy in Lok Sabha on Tuesday said, “India was the largest producer and seventh largest exporter of ‘Shree Anna’ as of 2021.”

“In wake of increasing the production and productivity of millets (jowar, bajra, ragi and small millets), the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has been implementing a sub-mission on nutri-cereals (Millets) under National Food Security Mission (NFSM) since 2018-19,” said the minister.

In addition to this, the programme is being implemented in different districts of 14 states including the northeastern and hilly states which have been given the flexibility to implement the programme as per their requirement.

Pearl millet (Bajra), sorghum (Jowar), finger millet (Ragi), and small millets such as foxtail millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, proso millet, little millet, and two pseudo millets such as Buckwheat and Amaranthus are the common millets grown in the state.

The minister further added, “To make India a global hub for ‘Shree Anna’ the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) was being supported as the centre of excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level.”