A provision of Rs. 300 crore is being made to promote higher production of nutri-cereals like Bajra, Jowar, Ragi and other millets. This was announced by the Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, in the Lok Sabha today while presenting the Union Budget for 2011-12.

This initiative would provide market linked production support to 10 lakh millet farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the country. Shri Mukherjee said that the programme would be taken up in 1000 compact blocks covering about 25000 villages.

Production support for millet farmers: market-linked budgetary assistance aimed at boosting nutri-cereal cultivation and rural outreach. A budgetary program provides a financial allocation to promote production of nutri-cereals (bajra, jowar, ragi and other millets) by offering market-linked production support to millet farmers in arid and semi-arid regions, implemented through concentrated interventions across designated development blocks covering about twenty-five thousand villages to reach large numbers of smallholder producers.