With the objective of promoting organic farming and millet production in the district, the Department of Agriculture is organising a two-day organic and millet mela at S.S. High School grounds from Saturday.

Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Joint Director of the department Shivakumar said the ministry has decided to promote protein-rich millets such as pearl and foxtail millets, which are cultivated in Vijayapura district.

He said that over the years, farmers were not growing these millets for various reasons and people too have stopped consuming them.

“In order to promote them among the farmers and people, the mela is being held for two days,” he said.

Mr. Shivakumar said these millets could be cultivated in rain-fed areas such as Vijayapura as this crop requires limited quantity of water. Since the millets carry higher quantum of protein, it is good for people if they include these in their daily diet.

Asserting that the government also wishes to promote organic farming, he said that farmers are being educated to adopt organic farming system to grow chemical-free commodities.

Mr. Shivakumar said that around 50 stalls are being set up. In order to introduce mechanisation in harvesting of these millets, different machines would also be displayed.

“One of the reasons for the declining cultivation of millets is the absence of mechanisation. During the mela, some manufacturers will be displaying machines designed to help the harvesting of these millets, which would save labour cost,” he said. Besides promoting millets, the mela will also have cultural events to draw the crowd, he said.