Odisha has become the first state in the country to release landrace and farmer-friendly varieties of millet crop under the seed system, the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment, Ranendra Pratap Swain claimed on Friday.

The department has released four landraces of finger millet (ragi). The landrace/farmer varieties- Kundra Bati, Laxmipur Kalia, Malyabanta Mami and Gupteswar Bharati shall be notified varieties for the districts of Koraput and Malkangiri for seed production and shall be sold for the purpose of agriculture, the minister said.

Their production will be undertaken as per the process outlined in the SOP for Seed System for landraces. Initially released for Koraput and Malkangiri, it will be extended to other districts based on performance and acceptability of the community, he added.

Odisha Millet Mission (OMM) and Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) will jointly prepare a roadmap for national release of landraces. The road map will be submitted to the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment Welfare of the Union Government. These four landraces will also be tested in the 10 agro-climatic regions of Odisha.

These traditional varieties have adapted to the local condition. They have better tolerance to pests and climate changes. These traditional landraces often perform better in organic farming conditions, the minister further stated.

The State Government had launched OMM in 2017 to revive millets in farms and plates. One of the objectives of OMM is conservation and promotion of indigenous landraces through a seed system for landraces.

Odisha is also home to 62 tribes. Tribal communities have a rich tradition of conserving local varieties of millets. A working group on seeds under OMM was constituted with eminent experts, agriculture scientists and grass root seed conservators to develop such a process.

Through this process, 163 millet landraces were identified out of which 14 landraces have shown very good performance.

Out of 14 traditional varieties which have performed well in participatory varietal trials of ragi in different districts further shortlisting was done and four varieties namely Bati, Mami, Kalia and Bharati performed well.

These four varieties underwent further purification and multi-location trials. After undertaking necessary trials, for the first time in the country, the Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment of Government of Odisha developed a standard operating procedure for reproduction, evaluation and release of those traditional landraces through a seed system for landraces under OMM.

In addition to standard scientific parameters such as yield, taste, climate resilience, pest resistance, cultural preference and other work has been considered during the developments of guidelines. For the first time in the country, custodian women farmers were included as the members of the varietal release committee, the minister added.