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The year 2023 has been declared as the ‘International Year of Millet’ by the United Nations following India’s proposal. Why is India pushing the world to bring these nutri-cereals back to the dining table?

The story so far: The Centre on Sunday kicked off the International Year of Millets, announcing a host of activities across the country to promote the cultivation and consumption of the ‘nutri-cereal’. Central ministries, State governments and Indian embassies will hold events throughout the year to promote and spread awareness about the benefits of millets for the “cultivator, consumer and climate”. A government release has said millets will also be an integral part of G-20 meetings. India assumed the Presidency of the G-20 summit in December.

Millets are part of a group of small-grained cereal crops used as both food and fodder. According to the book “ Millet in your meals”, about 6,000 varieties of these grains with varying colours exist around the world. Experts believe them to be one of the oldest foods known to humans and the first among cereals to be cultivated for domestic purposes. There is even evidence of the consumption of millet in the Indus Valley civilisation. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon apparently included millet among their treasured plants.

Millets were earlier referred to as “coarse cereals” or “cereals of the poor”. The Union government renamed these as “nutri-cereals” owing to their high nutritional value. Millets offer more than one nutrient to the diet and are considered more nutritious than rice and wheat. Millets are rich in iron, dietary fibre, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid, and niacin. These grains contain 7-12% protein, 2-5% fat, 65-75% carbohydrates and 15-20% dietary fibre. Millets are also gluten-free. 

Growing millets is also beneficial for farmers since this rain-fed crop requires less fertile land and water,, growing fairly well on dry land. They have a short growing season as compared to other major crops and can be grown in intercropping or under mixed cropping with pulses and oil seeds. With a low carbon and water footprint, millet crops can be cultivated without extensive use of fertilisers and pesticides and can survive extreme weather. Presently, millets are grown in more than 130 countries and consumed as a traditional food by over half a billion people across Asia and Africa.  

India is the largest producer of millet in the world with a share of 41% in 2020, as per FAO. Nine types are grown as kharif crops in over 20 States in the country. Major millets include finger millet (ragi or mandua), pearl millet (bajra) and sorghum (jowar) and minor millets include foxtail millet (kangani or kakun), barnyard millet (sawa or sanwa, jhangora), little millet (kutki), kodo millet (kodon), proso millet (cheena) and browntop millet. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are leading producers.

Though productivity has increased over the years, the area under cultivation of millets declined, especially after the Green Revolution, with a policy thrust on other grains. This gradually impacted the expansion of millets production in the country. In 2019, India accounted for 80% of the total production of these grains in Asia and 20% globally — around 170 lakh tonnes from138 lakh hectares of land, providing yield per hectare greater than the global average, FAO data shows. India is also among the top five exporters— India exported millets worth $64.28 million in 2021-22 and $59.75 million in 2020-21, according to the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. 

Despite offering high benefits to both the consumer and producer, millets are not very popular mainly due to a lack of awareness. But at a time when the world is battling a pandemic and climate change, and faces a significant challenge of food security, the nutri-cereal can play a significant role if marketed well, focusing on their high nutritional value, low input and maintenance requirements and climate-resilient nature. Problems of unavailability of good quality seeds, restricted cultivation, the low shelf life of grains, lack of research, absence of machinery for processing and market gaps also need to be addressed to tap into their true potential to increase farmers’ income, generate livelihoods and ensure food and nutritional security.