Rajasthan govt surpasses initial target for cooperative millet stores

The Rajasthan government has opened 152 millet outlets in the state so far, four-and-a-half times the initial target, according to a state cooperative department official. 

 

Manju Rajpal, principal secretary of the department, said the target of opening 34 millet outlets through the Rajasthan State Cooperative Consumer Federation (Confed) and District Cooperative Consumer Stores was surpassed due to the efforts of cooperative societies as well as consumers’ inclination towards adopting millets in their diet. 

 

Along with Confed and District Cooperative Consumer Stores, millet outlets are also being opened at the level of purchasing-selling cooperative societies and village service cooperative societies.

 

Rajpal added that these outlets are helping create employment opportunities, a point that was focused upon in this year’s state budget, which is also in line with the Centre’s slogan, ‘Sahkar se Samridhi’. 

 

Union Home and Cooperative Minister Amit Shah had inaugurated 64 millet outlets on July 17 at the Cooperative and Employment Festival in Jaipur. 

 

The products available at the millet outlets include millet mix, roasted jowar, roasted millet, ragi biscuits, oats biscuits, cookies, ragi flakes, and more. 

 

Hanuman Agarwal, Confed manager (marketing), said the Confed store located in Jaipur’s Nehru Sahakar Bhawan has been seeing sales of around ₹1.5 lakh every month, aided by the addition of millet, or ‘Shri Ann’ products.