2024-04-23 12:27:48
Millets Price: The United Nations (UN) had declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Along with this, the Government of India had announced ShriAnn Yojana in its budget to promote coarse grains. After this, domestic and foreign companies also increased the number of food products based on coarse grains. All this had an impact and the demand for coarse grains increased rapidly in the country. Along with this, the prices of these grains also increased.
highlights
- Central government’s plan to encourage coarse grains worked
- Now the demand for coarse grains is not only increasing, its price is also increasing.
- This is encouraging the farmers growing coarse grains.
New Delhi: You will remember, PM Modi had named it ‘ShreeAnn’. Yes, what we used to call coarse grains, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has named it as Shri Anna. Due to his efforts, the year 2023 was celebrated as ‘International Year of Millet’. After this, FMCG companies like Hindustan Unilever Limited, Nestle to ITC included products made from millet in their product basket. The combined effect of all this is that the demand for coarse grains has increased rapidly in the country. Along with this, the price of coarse grains has also increased. On the other hand, prices of wheat, one of the most consumed grains, are falling.
How much have the prices of coarse grains increased?
According to a news in our colleague ET, the prices of Ragi and some similar coarse grains have increased by 16.6 percent in March. This is the second time in the last six years that prices have increased so much. Earlier in February last, the prices of these grains had increased by 16.7 percent. It is said that this increase in prices is due to high demand for millet products, encouragement from the government and continuously increasing posts in its support on social media.
wheat prices have decreased
At this time the new crop of wheat has arrived in the market. With this its prices are decreasing. Just a month or two ago, the price of wheat in the market was Rs 2800 to Rs 2900 per quintal. Now this price has come down to Rs 2300 to Rs 2400 per quintal. Wheat farmers feel that wheat prices will increase after a few days. Therefore, they have postponed selling wheat for the time being. Therefore, government procurement is also going slow. Production is decreasing.
The increase in prices of coarse grains is also due to less production. Now see, the area under Ragi during the year 2022-23 was 1.16 million hectares which reduced to 1.04 million hectares in 2023-24. According to government data, this reduced production from 1.69 million tonnes in 2022-23 to about 1.39 million tonnes in 2023-24. Area of sorghum has increased
Ragi is not in good condition. There has been a slight increase in both the area and production of sorghum cultivation. Jowar production in the year 2023-24 was 4.03 million tonnes whereas a year ago it was 3.81 million tonnes. According to government data, the area under jowar cultivation has also increased to 3.65 million hectares this year as compared to 3.54 million hectares a year ago.
High demand for coarse grains
Firoz H Naqvi, director of the Federation of Sweets and Namkeen Manufacturers (FSNM), said, “The consumption of millet in both snacks and sweets is increasing and this is driving up the prices.” He said that after the government’s initiative to promote millet, the demand has increased so much that its supply in the country has reduced.
Multinational companies also came forward
Apart from food-based startups focusing on healthy breakfast, several large, packaged-food companies like ITC, Tata and Nestle are tapping the growing market for millets. They are expanding their product range of coarse grains.
International Year of Millets
The United Nations had declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. After this, the consumption of grains increased rapidly across the country. Apart from this, the Central Government had announced Shri Anna Yojana in its budget last year to popularize coarse grains and increase its consumption. Names of coarse grains
Here eight grains have been added to coarse grains. These include millet, jowar, ragi, kangani, kutki, kodo, sawan and chena. These grains are very beneficial for the human body. People consume coarse grains in different ways at this time. Some people make bread from this grain and some people consume it in many other ways besides noodles, biscuits and dosa.
About Shishir Chaurasia
Shishir ChaurasiaShishir Kumar Chaurasia is currently working as Business Editor with NBT.in. He has 24 years of experience in financial journalism. Earlier, he covered central government ministries for Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar, Univarta and Rajasthan Patrika. He has also worked in Divya Himachal, Dharamshala and Panchkula (Haryana)…. Read More
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