Engagement event with millet farmers in Odisha co-organised in collaboration with NIRMAN (Odisha) - 'Reviving Millets based farming for food & nutrition security' project

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Event Report by Prasant Mohanty, Nirman Odisha | March 23, 2017

Bhubaneswar, Odisha, 22.03.2017   An engagement event on sharing experience and issues with millet farmers in Odisha was held at the Presidency Hotel, Bhubaneswar, Odisha by NIRMAN, a local Civil Society Organisation, in collaboration with the Centre for Agroecology, Water & Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University (UK).   This event was co-organised and facilitated by Dr Lopamudra Patnaik Saxena, who is a researcher at Coventry University and she has initiated a multidisciplinary research project on millet farming in Odisha. CAWR is driving innovative and transdisciplinary research on resilient food systems in international contexts.   Millet farming has been supporting food and nutrition security as well as self-reliance of farmers’ families for their well-being. It needs to be supported and sustained at a larger scale involving all stakeholders including the state. Millet farming in Odisha has been facing challenges in terms of processing (particularly dehusking) and marketing. The event provided a platform for farmers to share issues, challenges and prospects for millet farming in Odisha.   Pitambar Gomango, a progressive farmer from Gajapati district says: “If government supports production, processing, marketing of millets, and popularises its farming as well as its nutritional values, it will reduce maternal and child mortality and malnutrition and ensure food security. Further it will contribute towards enrichment of soil fertility and conservation of biodiversity.”   Dulari Majhi, a woman farmer from Gambhari village of Kandhamal district, says: The food we get from PDS is not sufficient in terms of our food and nutrition requirement, so millet farming is the basis of our food and nutrition security.”   Rajamadu Majhi, another woman farmer from Dupi village of Kandhamal district says: “Without any use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, we are getting millet production which is helpful for our health and well-being”.   NIRMAN has been working with farmers in promoting millet farming in different districts of Odisha. The recent initiative on reviving millets in 30 blocks of 7 districts by the state government is a welcome step but it should be expanded to all the tribal blocks and districts where traditionally millet crops were grown but has declined in recent years.