DOI: 10.11648/j.ajset.20261104.33 ISSN: 2578-8353

Millet Growers Safeguarding the Household Economy and Nutritional Security Through Cultivation of Millets: A Case Study of Koraput, Odisha

Suravee Dash, Manoja Das, Kartik Lenka
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Koraput district household economy primarily depends on agriculture, in which cereal cultivation plays a vital role. The district topography is very peculiar, with a peculiar distribution of the land mass. During the kharif season, most of the Koraput district becomes covered in greenery through the cultivation of various crops, especially finger millet in the uplands. However, erratic rainfall remains the main constraint, hampering millet production. Despite many difficulties in the cultivation of millets in Koraput, the district contributes a major portion, around 65160 hectares, with a production of 8.44 qtls/ha (Data source: Department of Agriculture, 2013) of the area under millet cultivation. Nowadays, the global food system faces unparalleled challenges of hunger, undernutrition, malnutrition, and inadequate availability and affordability of healthy, nutritious diets. In this backdrop, a neglected underutilized crop like millet has received renewed policy primacy by governments in many states as well as by the central government in India for achieving nutritional and income security of the millet farming community of the country, who are the custodians of our diet; and for the high resilience of the crop against climate vulnerability of the farming sector. The Government of Odisha has placed special emphasis on millet cultivation and introduced the “Odisha Millets Mission (OMM),” now renamed “Odisha Shree Anna Abhiyan (OSAA),” as a rejuvenation effort in this direction. This supportive government policy provided a clear roadmap for expanding millet cultivation and increased millet farmers' household income. The present study aims to assess household income and millet consumption among millet farmers in Koraput block, Koraput district, as it ranks among the district's blocks in terms of area under millet cultivation and the number of households engaged in crop production. The block's high land suitability is reported to be the major factor behind extensive millet production. The block was selected using purposive sampling.

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