Key Details
At a national event on agro-biodiversity and climate-resilient agriculture beginning 10 November 2026, the ICAR Director General outlined priorities for expanding Odisha’s millet sector.
Cultivation: Increase the area under millets from 1.79 lakh to 5 lakh hectares by 2047—about 2.8 times the stated starting area.
Production: Work towards 8 lakh tonnes annually by 2047.
Current procurement: Odisha procured 7.5 lakh quintals of ragi in the 2024–25 kharif marketing season; the stated target for 2025–26 is 8 lakh quintals. Procurement is not the same measure as total millet production.
Crop diversity: Conserve 163 documented finger-millet landraces and promote smaller millets, including suan and kangu, alongside ragi.
Support proposed: Develop affordable processing equipment, strengthen farmer-producer organisations and women’s self-help groups, and expand research and market links. Jat also proposed a Centre of Excellence on Millets at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology.
Expansion Builds on an Existing Millet Programme
Jat presented the Odisha Shree Anna Abhiyan as a potential model for millet-based agricultural development. His proposed expansion is a direction for scaling an existing effort. The 2047 area and production figures set out the scale of the ambition, while recent ragi procurement shows a part of the market support already operating.
More Land Under Millets Is Only Part of the Story
The address connected cultivation with local crop diversity and farmers’ ability to sell what they grow. Conserving traditional finger-millet varieties and promoting minor millets could broaden the crops supported by the programme. Affordable processing machinery, producer groups and market links would matter if increased harvests are to become usable products and reliable sales.
Jat called for stronger collaboration with the ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research and proposed a millet centre at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology. The release does not say that the centre has been approved or funded.
Policy Relevance
For Odisha, the proposed scale-up raises a practical question about sequencing. Cultivation can expand faster than processing capacity, procurement or other markets. If those do not grow together, a larger harvest need not produce better returns for farmers. The existing ragi procurement figures offer a baseline, but they do not show what share of future millet production buyers would absorb.
The conservation objective also deserves attention as cultivation expands: supporting 163 documented landracesmeans ensuring that higher-output farming does not narrow the diversity the programme aims to protect. An adopted state plan — with milestones, responsibilities and financing — would show how the ideas raised at the conference are to be carried forward.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: What processing and market capacity would Odisha need as millet cultivation expands, while continuing to support its indigenous varieties?
Follow the Full News Here: Odisha Charts a National Roadmap for Millet-Led Agricultural Transformation