Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) aims not only to promote millets for its benefits but also for promoting equity & justice, said Principal Secretary of Agriculture Department, Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee, during a multi stakeholder workshop titled “Shaping the Sustainable Future of Odisha Millets Mission” organized by OMM in collaboration with University of York and Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) at Krushi Bhavan on Monday.
Padhee shared about the systems transformation, leadership approach and infrastructure support initiated through Odisha Millets Mission. It is driven by principles of equity and justice to rainfed upland farmers. He shared that Odisha is adopting whole of society and whole of government approach for mainstreaming millets. He welcomed the suggestions from the different stakeholders and said that OMM shall work on the suggestions emerged from the workshop and will continue to engage further with the diverse stakeholders.
The workshop was inaugurated by I/c Director Agriculture & Food Production, Rohit Lenka who highlighted potential of millets in addressing various health needs. He said that OMM, eagerly launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, is now being expanded across all districts by the Department.
An overview of Odisha Millets Mission was given by Joint Director of Agriculture, OMM, Sailendra Mohanty. This was followed by debriefing on the objectives of the workshop by Prof Sonal Chaudhury of University of York and Dr Ramanjaneyulu of CSA to the participants. They shared that key objectives of the workshop are to review current challenges across the millet mission supply chains for its sustainability, review best practices, indicators and frameworks for capturing sustainability performance of millet supply chains/ mission, define data, technology, governance and partnership needs for dynamic value co-creation for all stakeholders and propose innovative solutions (from policy to business models) for sustaining millet value chains.
Workshop was attended by representatives of Mission Shakti Department, Planning & Convergence Department, ST SC RTI, AIIMS, OUAT, ICAR-NRRI, ICAR-IIMR, ICAR-CIWA, Odisha State Biodiversity Board, Institute of Hotel Management, Executive Chef ITC, Chef Michel, BOCCA Café, Select Fresh and others. Workshop also saw the participation of farmers, FPOs and NGO partners.
