Women are major contributors in the various agricultural operations and value chain system. They are the torchbearer of the local and indigenous farming operations and rural livelihood. Millet is a staple food for most of the tribal communities and also regarded as pro-women crop. As most of the on-farm and post production activities are undertaken by women farmers so analysing the role of women for the millet farming operation is needed. Koraput, one of the tribal dominated district enjoys the top position in producing millets in Odisha. With these backdrops this paper intended to examine the role of women in the production and post-production activities of millet cultivation in the study area based on both primary data and secondary data. Primary data has been collected from 300 millet producing households in the study area and secondary data has been used to explain the role of Odisha Millet Mission for improving and facilitating the agronomic practices especially for women. This paper is both descriptive and analytical in nature. This study found that the women are major contributors in most of the farming operations starting from on-farm production activities like land preparation, variety selection, mannuring, sowing, weeding, harvesting to post-production activities like threshing, cleaning & drying of the grain, winnowing etc. and value-addition and marketing. It is also found that millet farming is not only a source of food and nutrition to the tribal communities but also related to the deep-rooted culture for the tribal women. This gives some degree of social and economic empowerment and decision-making power to the women.
