The Nafed Board met under the Chairmanship of Bijender Singh on Tuesday to decide about a host of issues including the procurement of red onions. Besides Bijender Singh, the board members including Dileep Sanghani, Dr Chandra Pal Singh, Dr Sunil Kumar Singh and MD Rajbir Singh, among others ,were present on this occasion.
Soon after the meeting, talking to the Indian Cooperative Nafed, Chairman Bijender Singh said the Board unanimously passed a resolution thanking the Union Agriculture Ministry and Minister Narendra Singh Tomar for their full support to Nafed’s efforts to procure red onions.
Tweeting about the meeting, senior co-operator and the board member Dileep Sanghani said “The Nafed board passed a resolution to procure red onions and grams following a transparent methodology”.
Besides massive procurement which touched 11990 metric tonnes benefitting 3156 farmers by Tuesday, Nafed has also been made a Nodal Organization to contribute and promote the ‘International Year of the Millet’ 2023 on a global scale. This was stated simultaneously on Tuesday in Lok Sabha by the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
“Under the guidance of Shri Tomar, NAFED has entered into an MoU with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare to extend its support to Millets initiatives”, reads a govt release.
Under the collaboration, the NAFED has started extending marketing linkage to Millets-centric Startups, setting up a Millet Corner in the NAFED Bazaar Retail Stores, installation of Millet Vending Machines across Delhi-NCR. We are also in the process of establishing a Millets Experience Centre at the Delhi Haat, INA to promote nutritious Millets and create awareness on the rich history of India through Millet based dishes, said Tomar.
The Govt has also given responsibility to NAFED to provide specially curated millet-based hampers while showcasing cultural history of millets, DIY recipes of millets and health & nutritional benefits of millets.
The NAFED has developed premium quality Millet Gift Hampers which have been showcased at the G-20 1st Employment Working Group Meeting under the aegis of the Ministry of Labour & Employment at Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
These hampers are developed with the idea to promote IYM-2023 and demonstrate support and commitment to the promotion of Millets and Millet based products.
