Millet Mahotsav organised at GNDU
Amritsar, September 6
The Department of Food Processing, Punjab, in collaboration with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Govt. of India, through Punjab Agro organised a one-day Millet Mahotsav at Guru Nanak Bhawan, Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar. This was 21st Millet Mahotsav in a series of 30 Millet Mahotsav being organised across all states in the country by MoFPI to commemorate 2023 as International Year of Millets.
Gurmeet Singh Khudian, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development and Food Processing Minister, inaugurated the millet fair-cum-exhibition. Khudian said that in 1950s Punjab used to grow millets on over 27 lakh acre, which has gradually come down to 2,500 acre, due to the impact of advent of green revolution in 1960s. He emphasised that in view of the present demand of millets in the state, some area could be added under millets cultivation. “Once the demand of millets is consistent, more area could be brought under millets cultivation, so that farmers could keep getting remunerative return for their produce,” he said in his address.
The minister said his government was considering giving free millets kits to interested farmers. Depending on the production of millets in the state, Punjab Agro shall set up a pilot project for farmers to get their produce processed at a nominal cost. Dr B Dayakar Rao, principal scientist, Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad, the subject expert, informed that India is the fifth largest exporter of millets and Punjab farmers can contribute a lot in exports as they could get double the yield of millets with single irrigation. “We have developed technologies to produce diversified products like millet pasta, millet poha, millet bread, millet cakes, millet cookies, millet dalia, etc. We have already supported six start-ups from Punjab manufacturing millet-based innovative products. Millets is no more a poor man’s food rather it is a premium food today,” he said.
The joint secretary, MoFPI, Preet Pal Singh, has said that venturing into food processing is the next stage for Punjab after green revolution, where the ministry is ready to support and promote food parks to facilitate enterprises to set up food processing units. Dean (Academic Affairs), GNDU, professor Sarabjot Singh Behl, said that the university has all the pre-requisites viz. department of food, science & technology and department of agriculture and food incubation centre for development of millet processing technologies. He offered to use their infrastructure to set up the proposed pilot project.
CIPHET and PAU, Ludhiana, have pilot facilities to process millet into value added products by enterprises. The event was attended by over 700 participants including farmers, millet growers and processors, PMFME beneficiaries, academia, government officials, bankers, food processing industries association, agri-enterprises, food science and technology students of different institutions, millet research institutions.
