Despite push, Govt’s millet procurement target expected to fall short — by 40%

In the last KMS (2021-22), millet procurement stood at 6.3 LMT, against the overall production of 511.01 LMT.

According to the sources cited above, for the current KMS, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had approved a quantity of 13.28 LMT of millets and coarse grain including bajra, jowar, ragi and maize, to be procured from 9 states — Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Procurement has been so far been slow across all the 9 states. For instance, the sources said, of the total procurement target, the government had aimed to procure the highest quantity — 7 LMT (2LMT jowar and 5 LMT ragi) — from Karnataka. Now, that expectation has been lowered to 6 LMT (jowar 1LMT and ragi 5 LMT).

Similarly, from Uttar Pradesh, against the approved quantity of 1.5 LMT, the expected procurement is only 0.43 LMT. In Madhya Pradesh, procurement of jowar and bajra is expected to remain at 258 metric tonnes against 1.80 LMT.

The situation is no different in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Only 766 metric tonnes of maize and bajra is expected to be procured from Gujarat, against the approved quantity of 30,000 metric tonnes.

In Maharashtra, the combined procurement figure of jowar, bajra, maize and ragi is expected to remain only 1,698 metric tonnes against an approved quantity of 61,075 metric tonnes.

With 2023 declared as the International Year of Millets by the UN, the Food Ministry has taken several initiatives to promote millets and coarse grains under the Public Distribution System (PDS), including enhancement of the distribution period/ shelf life upto six months for maize, nine months for jowar/ bajra and ten months for ragi from the earlier three months.

The government has so far not given any reason for the slow procurement of millets and coarse grains so far. Calls and messages seeking the Food Ministry’s comment did not yield any response.

At a conference of food ministers of states & UTs Wednesday, the Ministry asked states to include millet distribution in government schemes on the lines of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the Mid-Day Meal scheme.

“Seeing the nutritional benefits of the millets, all the states are requested to include millet distribution in TDS/ICDS/ PM-Poshan/ MDM etc… Millet-producing states to enhance procurement and distribution of millets year by year,” a presentation shared with the state officials read.

The states were also asked to follow the model of the ‘Karnataka Millet Mission’, under which the state has planned to increase consumption of millets up to 50% of NFS allocation in the next 3 years.