Agriculture Ministry launches series of initiatives for awareness on ancient and forgotten golden grains as run up to International Year of Millets 2023
Host of competitions launched, some ongoing
and many more to be launched on MyGov platform
Engagement on MyGov will play an important role in helping to make it a peoples
movement
A series of
pre launch events and initiatives have been organised 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 organisations 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 will be launched in the future on the MyGov
platform, to capture the imagination and creative spirit of the country.
Details about
the contests are available on MyGov website https://www.mygov.in/
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 was
launched on 10 September 2022. This initiative encourages young minds to
offer technological/ business solutions to the existing problems in the millets
ecosystem. This
Innovation Challenge will remain open till 31 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 20 October
2022, and has already received 57,779 page views and 10,824 entries between 20 –
30 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 these were 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.