Previous Year Question
With reference to ‘Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion’, which of the following statements is/are correct?
This initiative aims to demonstrate improved production and post-harvest technologies, and to demonstrate value-addition techniques, in an integrated manner, with a cluster approach.
Poor, small, marginal and tribal farmers have a larger stake in this scheme.
An important objective of the scheme is to encourage farmers of commercial crops to shift to millet cultivation by offering them free kits of critical inputs of nutrients and micro-irrigation equipment.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
1 only
2 and 3 only
1 and 2 only
1, 2 and 3
Correct Answer: C
Detailed Solution
The Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion (INSIMP) was introduced in 2011-12 under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY). It sought to improve the productivity, processing, value addition and nutritional use of coarse cereals and millets.
Statement 1 is correct. Under the scheme, a cluster approach was followed to demonstrate:
Improved seeds and better crop-production technologies.
Integrated nutrient and pest management.
Post-harvest technologies.
Primary processing, packaging and storage.
Preparation of value-added food products from millets.
Thus, the initiative was not confined to increasing production; it covered the value chain from production to processing and value addition.
Statement 2 is correct. Millets are predominantly cultivated in low-rainfall, arid and semi-arid regions. Small, marginal, poor and tribal farmers account for a significant share of millet cultivation. Such farmers were consequently the principal stakeholders and beneficiaries of the scheme.
Millets require comparatively less water and can grow in poor soils and adverse climatic conditions. The initiative was therefore connected not only with nutritional security but also with climate-resilient agriculture and the income security of small farmers.
Statement 3 is incorrect. The initiative did not seek to induce commercial-crop farmers to abandon their crops and shift to millet cultivation. It provided demonstrations of improved technologies and necessary inputs in millet-producing areas, but shifting commercial-crop farmers through free kits of nutrients and micro-irrigation equipment was not its prescribed objective.
Current status (2026)
INSIMP is no longer implemented as a separate scheme. Millets were brought under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) from 2018-19. In 2024-25, the Mission was renamed the National Food Security and Nutrition Mission (NFSNM).
Under the present NFSNM, assistance for Shree Anna/millets continues through demonstrations of improved technologies, production and distribution of certified seeds, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest management and farmer training. According to the official portal, NFSNM is operating in 28 states and two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.