DOIMUKH: Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Tage Taki on Thursday said the Agriculture Department will buy the surplus millet produced in the State.
Addressing the inaugural function of the celebration of the International Year of Millets at the community hall in Rono here, the minister encouraged farmers to ‘grow and adopt millet as a staple food’.
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The celebration was organized by the Papum Pare district agriculture office to create awareness about millet cultivation, and to motivate the farmers to take up sustainable production of quality millets.
Addressing the farmers from Tawang, West Kameng, East Kameng, Pakke-Kessang and Papum Pare districts, Taki said ‘the climate resilient millet is a low-cost high-value crop that thrives even in stress conditions, and can be cultivated across Arunachal Pradesh’.
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Encouraging the youths to take up agricultural and horticultural activities for self-employment and income generation, the minister said, “The government has devised farmer-friendly, sustainable and self-reliant policies and programmes, and the youths should take maximum advantage of it.”
Lauding the women farmers, who comprised 95 per cent of the attendees, Taki said ‘it is an indicator that our state is forging ahead in the right direction’.
Doimukh MLA Tana Hali Tara highlighted the health benefits of millet and said that ‘this anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, anti-blood pressure and antioxidants crop should be adopted as a staple food’.
He exhorted the department’s officials, the farmers, and members of SHGs to ‘make concerted efforts to make Papum Pare an agricultural and horticultural hub’.
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Agriculture Director Anong Lego highlighted the IEC activities carried out by the department to popularize millet, and informed that ‘IECs and trainings have been carried out in Sagalee, Sangdupota, Mengio, and Doimukh’.
ADO Riakji Duchok informed that, “besides evolving a marketing strategy, intensive IEC activities to popularise millet through field visits, frontline demonstrations, melas, etc, will be carried out in the coming months.”
He informed that the state has been divided into four zones, “with Ziro, Yupia, Pasighat and Khonsa as venues for conducting the IECs, melas and interaction programmes with farmers.”
Dr Nagesh Narayan Pandey from Guwahati (Assam)-based Vivid Enterprises, which deals specifically in millet-based products, spoke about various products, ‘such as cakes, biscuits, cookies, etc,’ that can be made from millet.
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As part of the celebration, stalls exhibiting value-added millet products and other organic products were set up by SHGs, farmers and the agriculture department.
Among others, District Agriculture Officer Maze Peil, DHO Tobom Bam, and agriculture development officers from the districts attended the event.