Bitter for millet farmers controlling diabetes and heart disease

Gandhinagar, 16 June 2021

The trouble for the farmers in Gujarat is that the place where the millet is grown the most is the place where the storm came and it rained. So this millet has now come in the market and has turned black due to rain. there is no cure. It is used as animal feed. Therefore, farmers have to sell it at a price lower than the government support price.

Government savings

The people of Gujarat have to spend Rs 26,000 crore every year on heart disease and diabetes. The Gujarat government has to spend a lot for this. But millet is one such cereal that helps in controlling both these diseases. Which is opposite to the wheat crop. The Gujarat government can reduce its health expenditure by Rs 10,000 crore by giving incentives for millet.

The government did not accept the loss

There was crop damage due to nature, but millet crop was not included in the survey. Therefore, farmers have not been given their dues. Secondly, millet was not purchased on support price. So far the government has not taken any action against the traders who buy at less than the support price.

Storm

In Banaskantha district, 50 percent of Gujarat’s Bajara is grown.

On June 3, 2021, apart from the storm in the border areas of Banaskantha, there were strong winds accompanied by heavy rains. Therefore, due to heavy rains in Danta, Ambaji, Vadgam, Palanpur, Dhanera, Deesa, Dantiwada, Amirgarh, Bapala, Vaktpura, Vachol, Alwara areas, there has been heavy damage to the millet crop. On one hand, where production has decreased, on the other hand traders are buying at low prices.

Tau Te storm passed through Bhabhor deodar of Banaskantha on the morning of 19 May 2021 and moved towards Rajasthan. It rained in Patan and Banaskantha areas. Therefore, the Banaskantha collector ordered people not to come out of the house.

Millet was more abundant where the storm struck

In addition, farmers sown 2.71 lakh hectares of summer millet, where the cyclone had caused rains. In which Banaskantha 1.66 lakh hectares used to cultivate more than 50% of the total millet of Gujarat. There were 4 thousand hectares in Patan and 10 thousand hectares in Mehsana. A total of 1.93 lakh hectares were sown in North Gujarat.

Anand was planted in 28 thousand hectare, Kheda 20 thousand hectare, Junagadh 2800, Amreli 2100, Bhavnagar 3800, Somnath 5400 hectare. It rained in South Gujarat but farmers did not cultivate millet.

double summer production

On an average 3,000 kg of millet is harvested per hectare. The production in monsoon is barely half of the 1400 kg per hectare in summer. Therefore, farmers should sow summer millet.

81.30 crore kg of Bajara was cooked. But the millet crop came in the middle of the storm. So the production came down to 61 percent. So hardly 49-50 crore kg was produced. Fall in prices and blackening of millet due to rain has caused damage.

price robbery

20 kg hardly fetches Rs.250. In fact, if the cost of 20 kg of millet is Rs 400 to Rs 500, then farmers can earn some profit after their hard work. 1500-1600 crores were to be received, but only 625 crores have been received. The government actually had to pay around Rs 500 crore. But the Rupani government of BJP has refused to give compensation to the farmers. The government has not given compensation for the natural calamity. Such complaints have been made by farmers.

Heart disease-sweet urine

Heart disease is on the rise in Gujarat. 108 emergency services received calls of 18,647 heart attacks in 2010 and 28,201 in 2021. 31-50 years is the age of red alert. Rs 22,000 crore is spent on heart disease.

Millet regulates cholesterol levels, blood sugar and blood pressure. This lowers the risk of heart disease. Magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, starch, are good. An amino acid called tryptophan helps maintain appetite and digestion.

People spend Rs 4,000 crore annually on diabetes. 36% of people over the age of 40 have diabetes.

Bajara was sown on 7.70 lakh hectares in 2006-07, compared to 4.64 lakh hectares in 2016-17 and an average of 3.50 lakh hectares. Thus, due to less consumption of millet, some diseases have increased. Bajara is a traditional food of Gujarat. Wheat is later.

In the 1995-96 monsoon, 7 lakh tonnes of millet was produced in one million hectares. With summer it was 1.3 million hectares, every man used to eat 20-25 kg of millet in a year. Now only 10 percent of it is being consumed.