Our Krishi Vigyan Kendra is leading the charge in bringing back climate-resilient millet varieties to tribal farmlands, improving nutrition and income for hundreds of families.
Reviving Millet Farming: KVK's Mission to Restore Traditional Crops
Millets — once the staple food of tribal communities across the Eastern Ghats — had been steadily declining over the past few decades, replaced by rice monoculture driven by government procurement policies. Our Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) recognized this as both a nutritional and ecological crisis and launched a dedicated millet revival programme in 2022.
Why Millets Matter
Millets are nutritional powerhouses. Finger millet (ragi), foxtail millet, and little millet contain significantly more protein, calcium, and iron than polished rice. For tribal communities battling malnutrition, these traditional crops are a natural solution that doesn't require expensive supplementation programmes.
Beyond nutrition, millets are climate-smart crops. They require 60-70% less water than paddy rice, are resistant to most pests, and can thrive in the poor, rocky soils typical of hilly tribal terrain. In an era of unpredictable rainfall and climate change, millets represent food security.
The KVK Approach
Our KVK team works directly with farming families through demonstration plots, seed distribution, and hands-on training. We've introduced improved varieties of finger millet and foxtail millet that offer higher yields while maintaining the nutritional profile of traditional varieties. Farmers are trained in organic cultivation practices, value addition, and market linkages.
In the 2025 kharif season, over 450 farming families across 28 villages adopted millet cultivation through our programme. The average income per hectare increased by 35% compared to paddy cultivation, while input costs decreased significantly.
Building Market Linkages
A key challenge in millet farming is market access. We've partnered with local self-help groups to set up millet processing units where raw millets are cleaned, graded, and packaged for retail sale. We're also exploring partnerships with urban organic food retailers to create premium market channels for tribal-grown millets.
The revival of millet farming isn't just an agricultural intervention — it's a movement to reclaim tribal food sovereignty and cultural identity.