Agriculture ministry builds awareness campaigns in run up to the International Year of Millets 2023

New Delhi: A series of pre-launch events and initiatives have been organized by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on the MyGov platform as run-up to the International Year of Millets 2023 to create awareness and a sense of participation in the country around the ancient and forgotten golden grains.

The MyGov platform has become a very important and successful medium for raising awareness through organizations of various competitions. The engagement on MyGov will play an important role in helping to make it a people’s movement. A host of competitions have already been launched, some are ongoing and many more in the future will be launched on the MyGoV platform, to capture the imagination and creative spirit of the country.

Details about the contests are available on My Gov website.

A contest for designing a comic story, with the theme ‘India’s Wealth, Millets for Health’ has been launched on 5th September 2022, and is intended to showcase the health benefits of millets to raise awareness among the masses. The contest closes on 5th November 2022 and has received an encouraging response so far.

The Millet Startup Innovation Challenge has been launched on 10th September 2022. This initiative encourages young minds to offer technological/ business solutions to the existing problems in the millets ecosystem. This Innovation Challange will remain open till 31st January 2023.

The Mighty Millets Quiz was recently launched with questions were based on millets and its benefits and which solicited a huge response. with questions were based on millets and its benefits. The contest closes on 20th October 2022 and has received 57,779 page views and 10,824 entries between 20th – 30th August 2022.

A competition for an audio song and documentary film on the importance of millets, is also to be launched shortly.

The logo and slogan contest for the International Year of Millets 2023 has already been held and the winners will be announced shortly. The Government of India will soon release the Logo and Slogan to mark the momentous occasion of the International Year of Millets 2023.

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.  This will help to create awareness throughout the world of the importance of millets, its role in sustainable agriculture, and its benefits as a smart and super food.

India is poised to become the global hub for millets with a production of more than 170 lakh tonnes and producing more than 80 % of the millets produced in Asia. Earliest evidence for these grains has been found in Indus civilization and were one of the first plants domesticated for food. It is grown in about 131 countries and is the traditional food for around60 crore people in Asia & Africa.