Activists rue budget cut for promoting millet cultivation in Odisha

The Right to Food Campaign, a network for furthering food rights, expressed concern over “drastic” reduction in budget for promoting millet, grown primarily by tribals and a climate resilient crop, by the Odisha Government.

A government of Odisha order says ₹415 crore has been sanctioned for 2026-27 against last year’s ₹600 crore, a reduction of nearly 31%, despite the scheme having achieved a 93% utilisation rate in 2025-26, demonstrating robust on-ground demand and delivery capacity, the campaign said on Wednesday (May 13, 2026).

“The State government has quietly approved an annual action plan for Shree Anna Abhiyan, reducing funding, withdrawing ground-level support agencies from 13 different blocks, and imposing a financial blackout on tribal-dominated District Mineral Fund (DMF) districts of Keonjhar and Sundargarh,” said Bidyut Mohanty, a lead member of the network.

‘No financial allotment’

“The order explicitly states that no financial allotment or provision will be made to the DMF districts of Keonjhar and eight blocks of Sundargarh. Several vulnerable sections of tribal live in these districts,” he pointed out.

The campaign says since 2017-18, the scheme relied on facilitating agencies (one per block), Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs) and Community Resource Persons (CRPs) to bridge the gap between government programmes and small and marginal farmers.

“The new order withdraws FPOs and CRPs but instead of reforming the mechanism, the government has chosen to abandon field-level support entirely, handing responsibilities back to overstretched departmental functionaries,” said activists.

“Rather than addressing the institutional bottlenecks that held back infrastructure components, the government has penalised tribal and smallholder farmers by slashing the overall scheme budget,” said Mr. Mohanty.

The Right To Food campaign members further alleged the share of non-ragi millet cultivation including little millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, and sorghum which are critical to dietary diversity in tribal regions, remains marginal at roughly 17,680 hectares out of a 1,00,000 ha total target, with no dedicated budget increase despite government messaging around the ‘Year of Millets’ legacy.