The Government of Odisha organised the first ever Millets festival, Mandia Dibasa, on November 10, 2022. The aim of celebrating the day is to promote mandia or millets. Millets, often called nutri-cereals, have been a part of India’s culture and agriculture since ancient times. Millets offer numerous benefits such as they are climate-resilient, have a short cropping-period, require less water and are nutrient-rich. This event was attended by various key stakeholders including state Ministers and government officials, farmer representatives and UN personnel.

Dr Konda Reddy Chavva, Officer-in-charge at FAO India, participated in the event and took the opportunity to congratulate the Government of Odisha for its initiatives to promote millets. He further spoke about the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, conflict, and inequality on food and nutrition security and emphasized on collaborative and transformational action to strengthen agrifood systems towards ending hunger.

Dr Chavva mentioned that diversifying food production systems with millets, pulses and oilseeds is important for food and nutrition security. The Odisha Millets Mission is pioneering India’s efforts to revive millets in farms and on plates. Millets offer not only food but also fodder, health, nutrition, livelihood and ecological security. Thus, while other food crops can offer us food security, millets can offer multiple securities. FAO’s study on millets in India emphasises on boosting initiatives for enhancing the productivity of these nutri-cereals, improve demand generation through value addition, market and infrastructure development, and policy reforms.

FAO is keen to continually collaborate with the Government of Odisha, for instance, on the community managed seed systems- co-developed with farmers to maintain local plant genetic resources, and ensure availability of quality seeds, by addressing aspects related to selection, storage, and cleaning.