31st January 2023 (8 Topics)
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Tasks for India’s millet revolution
Context
Despite the tremendous benefits associated with millet, there are serious constraints to increased millet cultivation and consumption in the country.
About Millets
- Millet is a collective term referring to a number of small-seeded annual grasses that are cultivated as grain crops, primarily on marginal lands in dry areas in temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions.
- Two groups of millets are grown in India.
- Major millets include sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet
- Minor millets include foxtail, little millet, kodo, proso, and barnyard millet
- Benefits: Millets have
- special nutritive properties: they are high in protein, dietary fibre, micronutrients and antioxidants
- special agronomic characteristics: drought-resistant and suitable for semi-arid regions
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. |
What are the real problems?
- The decline in the area under millet cultivation
- Low productivity of millet
- Changing food habits
Recent Government Interventions
- The Government of India and State governments, notably Karnataka and Odisha, have initiated Millet Missions.
- Odisha already has a dedicated millets mission that undertook procurement of 32,302 tonnes worth Rs 109.08 crore, mainly of ragi, in 2021-22.
- Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana might want to do the same in bajra, just as Maharashtra may for jowar, Karnataka for ragi, and Madhya Pradesh for Kodo/ kutki.
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