Context
Recently, the Agriculture Ministry, NAFED signed MoU to boost the initiative to promote millets towards the celebration of the international year of millets 2023.
About International Year of Millets
- India's proposal to observe an International Year of Millets in 2023 was approved by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in 2018 and the United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets.
- This was adopted by a United Nations Resolution for which India took the lead and was supported by over 70 nations.
Objectives
- Awareness of the contribution of millet to Food Security and nutrition.
- Inspire stakeholders to improve sustainable production and quality of millets.
- Focus on enhanced investment in research and development and extension services to achieve the other two aims.
What are millets?
- Millet is a collective term referring to a number of small-seeded annual grasses that are cultivated as grain crops, primarily on marginal lands in dry areas in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.
- Majorly cultivated in the semiarid tropical regions of Africa and Asia, around 97 percent of world’s overall millet production happens in these regions.
- Some of the common millets available in India are Ragi (Finger millet), Jowar (Sorghum), Sama (Little millet), Bajra (Pearl millet), and Variga (Proso millet).
- The earliest evidence for these grains has been found in Indus civilization and was one of the first plants domesticated for food.
- It is grown in about 131 countries and is the traditional food for around 60 crore people in Asia & Africa.
- India is the largest producer of millet in the world.
- It Accounts for 20 % of global production and 80% of Asia’s production.
About NAFED
- National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) is an apex organization of marketing cooperatives for agricultural produce in India.
- It was founded on 2 October 1958 to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation.
- It is registered under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act.
- NAFED is now one of the largest procurement as well as marketing agencies for agricultural products in India.
- Agricultural farmers are the main members of this body.
- With its headquarters in New Delhi, NAFED has four regional offices at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, apart from 28 zonal offices in capitals of states and important cities.
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