Raimati, Subasa – tribal women from Odisha to share insights on millets at G20 dinner

After day-long deliberations and meet-ups, delegates attending the G20 Summit in New Delhi will be relishing India's culinary delicacies, including dishes made of millets. In view of the United Nations General Assembly accepting India's proposal for the International Year of Millets 2023, world leaders, representatives of member states are already being served with millets-based dishes at the hotels they are staying.

Millets have several health benefits, as well as, come with environmental impact. To introduce the significance of this crop and dishes made out of it, two tribal women from Odisha – Raimati Ghiuria and Subasa Mohanta – will share insights at the dinner programme which will be hosted by President Droupadi Murmu.

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Both women took up millet farming at a time when many were unwilling to venture into it. They will showcase how farming the crop has helped change the life of many tribal women.

Raimata Ghiuria

1. 36-year-old Ghiuria belongs to the Bhumia community and a native of Nauguda village in Odisha's Koraput.
2. She is known as a seed conservator and has conserved over 70 traditional varieties of indigenous rice as well as over 30 varieties of millets.
3. A mother of three, she became a resource person for her community who has trained other farmers on packaging practices of millets and other crops.
4. She also runs a company that procures millets from local farmer and allow them to sell them at a minimum support price.
5. She has also been training farmers on line transplanting, millet intensification, organic pest management and intercropping since 2012.

Subasa Mohanta

1. 45-year-old Mohanta is a resident of Singarpur village in Odisha's Mayurbhanj.
2. She became a successful farmer of ragi – a type of millet – from a struggling paddy farmer with the use of traditional methods.
3. Once a staple food of tribals, millets saw a decline from farms in her village. After taking its cultivation, she encouraged other farmers to take it up as their part of farm produce.
4. She started cultivating millets after the state government launched Odisha Millets Mission in 2017. Earlier she used to have regular crop failures during paddy farming.
5. Mohanta was one of those who interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the global conference on millets.