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

-Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government plans to produce millet products and sell them under a brand, officials said here on Tuesday.

Officials said that 5 millet products will be produced by the ‘Sri Anna Federation’ and sold in the market under the brand ‘Narmada Millets’.

“Five products are currently undergoing quality tests. Once the tests are carried out, they will be produced on a mass scale to be marketed,” said an official from the federation.

The officer said that the five products that add value to millets include ‘Idli’, ‘Dosa’, ‘Upama’, ‘Khichdi’ and different millet flours used to prepare biscuits.

“The millets procured from farmers are processed in processing units established in different parts of the state to ensure the marketing of millet products.

The main objective of the exercise is to involve farmers producing millets in the food processing process,” Balram Vishwakarma, director general of the federation, told the media here.

Farmer Producer Organizations (PFOs) are involved in the entire process.

The Madhya Pradesh government has declared the purchase 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.

This season, the Federation procured 3,000 tons of millet grain from approximately 4,000 millet growers in the state.

Dindori and Mandla, two tribal-dominated districts in Jabalpur district in the state, are known as the ‘millet bowl’ of Madhya Pradesh as a millet producing region.

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

Rajasthan is the largest producer of millets in the country.