Agrofood chamber for constituting Millets Board, cutting GST to 5%

MADURAI: Agro Food Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AFCCI), Madurai, has urged the need for constituting ‘Millets Board’ in Tamil Nadu like how Coffee Board and Spices Board were set up.

During this ‘International Year of Millets,’ several measures should be taken under the ‘Millet Mission’ to increase production and productivity of millets and its value-added products in the state, S Rethinavelu, president, AFCCI, Madurai, said.

Various demands were placed in the pre-budget memorandum submitted to Agriculture Minister MRK Panneerselvam during his recent visit to Madurai.

A target should be fixed to increase cultivation of millets in 18 districts including Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Thoothukudi, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Vellore, Tirupattur, Tiruvannamalai, Salem, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Coimbatore and Tirupur.

Machineries should be introduced for millet farming and harvesting to promote largescale cultivation.

Promote ‘ridgeless cultivation’

Moreover, it’s essential to educate the farmers to go for joint cultivation by removing the ridges of their small land holdings to introduce scientific farming with latest technology in a large span of land of at least 100 acres to achieve high productivity. The existing Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs) have to be motivated by the government by introducing a scheme for ‘ridgeless cultivation.’

The Chamber also felt that southern districts should be declared as food processing hub. For the development of food processing units, a separate policy with special incentives should be announced and global food processors should be encouraged to start business in southern districts also. The export of processed food products should also be encouraged.

It’s not fair to levy 18 per cent GST on value added products manufactured from millets, while we propagate its consumption. Millets should either be exempted from GST or reduced to 5 per cent, Rethinavelu added.

He also opined that marketing committees could be equipped with sufficient allied infrastructure.