MillenniumPost
Opinion

A smart alternative

India’s G20 presidency can be leveraged to promote healthy, climate-friendly millets as a viable alternative to semi-traditional staples like rice and wheat

A smart alternative
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Miracle grain millets (jowar, sorghum, bajra, ragi) have been traditionally a favoured food for generations. However, the trend in the previous decade saw a preference for “other cereals”, leading to a surge of options such as rice, wheat and lentils.

Recently, India’s patronage, along with the support of 72 more countries, led to the landmark announcement of 2023 as the International Year of Millets, by the United Nations General Assembly. With this resolution, a focussed approach has been resorted to by making it essentially a people’s movement with a multi-stakeholder consultative approach, engaging several partners like farmers, consumers, markets, states, corporates and the government departments.

The Indian government has been on a mission mode to promote the branding and production of millets since 2018 due to its unique functional utility in addressing issues of nutritional security alongside systemic environmental concerns. India can easily boast of herself being the maximum producer of millets in the world, with 18 per cent of the global produce and approximately 20 per cent of the area under cultivation. Sizeable contributing states in India are Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra, in the same order.

Millet has the capacity to address global health concerns such as health disorders, chronic illnesses, undernutrition, adult overweight and obesity. A nutrient-imbalanced and improper diet is responsible for most of the ailments. Millet consumption can largely address several issues, thus serving as nutri cereals that are rich in minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc and magnesium, along with dietary fibres and vitamins such as folic acid, vitamin B6, B-carotene, and niacin.

The current cropping styles have led to over-utilisation of land resources, resulting in decline of soil fertility and wastage of water, thus adding to the vulnerability of farmers. This has led to a distress-like situation resulting in farmers’ suicides and agrarian crisis in most developing countries. Millets are the solution for addressing such climatic distress faced globally, as these are the only group of crops that can be cultivated in arid regions, with minimum water requirement, shorter growing seasons and the ability to tolerate a wide range of temperatures.

The jumpstart to the millet ecosystem as the preferred nutritional choice for the consumers — so that there is an initiation towards intuitive eating, health and wellness in India — needs a big boost. This will nudge people to escape from semi-traditional food choices such as rice and cereals, and help them transition to healthier patterns.

These cereals have almost been consumed as lifestyle choices, which was a result of the Green Revolution, as the country’s main focus was to increase food production by encouraging high-yielding crops to achieve food security in the 1950s. The over commercialisation and lucrative mechanisms, along with the influence of western culture and the delusion that millets are poor man’s food, shifted consumers’ preference towards other cereals which led to the collapse of the millet culture in the country. Adequate importance in research and development for improved varieties of millet consumption and productivity was not a priority area, thus leaving a scope for undefined choices.

Millets’ boom has definitely provided a smart food choice for obvious reasons ranging from varied health benefits to sustainable farming and addressing climate concerns, thus shaping the vision for realignment of the objectives towards fulfilment of the sustainable development goals. To ensure the success of the International Year of Millets, the Government of India has constituted several task forces and committees to tackle various issues and challenges in the millet value chain. The focus is on involving maximum stakeholders for activities ranging from consumption to research and development, with the engagement of academic institutes, farming producer organisations, private food processors and state governments that can aid in effectively capturing and aligning the efforts with the consumer preferences.

India’s G20 presidency is the right opportunity to leverage the Year of Millets campaign for global awareness, with established platforms for popularisation and dissemination of knowledge for the global market, thus pushing the demand and increasing the supply for effective market linkages for this wonderful super pill. This will lead to a paradigm shift from food security to nutritional security, with climate change as the fulcrum.

Pawan Sain is Joint Secretary, EAC-PM and Nimisha Jha is a civil servant. Views expressed are personal

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