“Millets are incredible ancestral crops with high nutritional value. Millets can play an important role and contribute to our collective efforts to empower smallholder farmers, achieve sustainable development, eliminate hunger, adapt to climate change, promote biodiversity, and transform agrifood systems.”  - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu

Why on earth, are more people not talking about, eating and growing millets? Once prolific on farms around the world, this ‘forgotten, ancient grain’ is environmentally friendly, climate resilient, uses less water and is bursting with goodness!

It’s little wonder then that the Government of India spearheaded a proposal to the United Nations to declare 2023 as the International Year of the Millets (IYOM) and is driving efforts under the banner ‘Shree Anna’ (the mother of grains) to generate a people’s movement around Millets for the overall benefit of the ‘cultivator, consumer and climate’.

Jumping on board last year to help with this tiny grain’s ‘come-back’, Ambuja Foundation re-introduced millets to farmers as a great way to diversify crops, save water and benefit the soil. Starting small, 35 farmers introduced millets into their ‘package of practices’ and Ambuja Foundation commenced training and awareness, via a 1 ha demonstration plot, on how to grow the ancient grain - once common, traditional knowledge, that is slowly being ‘lost’.

This is just the beginning, but the business case for millets among both cultivators and consumers is enough to place millets front and centre in the development conversation!

Three Simple Facts about Millets

1.       Millet – A Major Producer in India

‘Millet’ is a general term used for a wide range of cereals that produce small grains (seeds) from a naturally diverse set of grass species. They can be cultivated on marginal lands, in dry areas in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.

Species of millet include pearl, foxtail, finger, proso, barnyard, little, kodo, browntop and guinea millets, black and white fonio, teff, Job’s tears and sorghum, as well as many other diverse and local species.

India is a major producer of Millets, accounting for 80% of Asia’s total production. But its potential is largely untapped – something the government hopes to capitalize upon via a ‘Millet Missions’ programme in 11 states (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand) to facilitate the production, processing, value addition, marketing and consumption of millets.

2.       A Climate Smart Grain

And this push makes climate sense. In comparison to cereals like wheat and rice, millets require significantly less water to cultivate, and are often naturally more pest-resistant, requiring fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Proso and pearl millets, for example, require a sixth of the water rice needs to grow. In water starved, and soil-depleted India, it’s a no-brainer!

This trait makes them a drought resilient crop too! When compared to other cereals, millets can be more productive in high-temperature conditions and have a shorter growing season – the life cycle of millets is on average 8–12-weeks, while other major crops are in the 20–24-week range – making them a viable crop in challenging environmental situations. It’s little wonder then that they are popularly grown in states like Rajasthan who is at the forefront of growing millets like bajra and jowar.

Several traits allow millets to survive the stress of long-term drought and heat, such as millets’ short stature, small leaf area, thickened cell walls and dense root systems. Millets are well adapted to soil with low fertility and are resistant to drought, with some species recorded to grow with as little as 40 mm of water per year. Further, some research indicates millets such as pearl and finger millet can grow in soils with a salinity of 11–12 dS/m, four times the salinity in which rice is able to grow.

Production of major cereal crops has grown more volatile in recent years as the weather has become increasingly erratic, agricultural lands erode and soils become depleted of nutrients.

3.       A Multitude of Health Benefits

Millets make sense on the health front also! A major staple food in India for centuries, millets sadly but got side-lined in the recent past with the advent of rice and wheat - grains that are generally consumed in a refined form and have higher energy but lower nutrient values. Whilst until the late 1960’s, millets used to make up about 20% of grain consumption in India, today it stands at just 6%.

This presents a huge opportunity for a country slowly being crippled by diabetes. Millets, as whole grains, have a lower-glycaemic index compared to refined grains like wheat and white rice, making them a great option in diets for those with high blood sugar or diabetes.

Another key reason for the revival of Millets again in India, is via the resurgence of traditional medicine in the country (Ayurveda), where millets are considered an integral part of healthy eating.

It’s not surprising that Ambuja Foundation has been promoting them via their network of Sakhi’s to women as part of their nutrition program – slowly trying to get families to introduce millets as an integral part of the family diet. Additionally, Ambuja Foundation promoted Women’s Federations are making and selling Bajra Cookies in an effort to tackle under and malnutrition among children in Chirawa, Rajasthan.

Plans for the Future

This is just the beginning for millets among the Ambuja Foundation farming community. This year, the target is for 100 farmers to grow millets, and the main focus going forward will be on value addition and marketing aspects like packaging and branding.

Huge marketing opportunities exist because of the potential nutritional and environmental benefits of millets, creating alternatives for customers who are looking to purchase products better for the planet and for their health. By promoting millets and regaining market share for the grains, additional sources of revenue can be created for smallholder farmers, boosting economic growth and bringing financial gains to rural communities.

Conclusion

We are facing complex, interconnected challenges around the world. Rising hunger and malnutrition, the depletion of natural resources, and the worsening effects of the climate crisis. To reverse these negative trends, our global agrifood system must become more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable.

It is here that millets present an opportunity. They are incredibly diverse, ancestral crops that can be cultivated in various adverse climates and arid regions, have the potential to strengthen food security, and can contribute to a healthy diet due to their high nutritional value.

But there are many challenges to undergo in this journey of brining millets ‘back’ into the mainstream:

·       Millet production and use has waned as research and development for breeding, farm mechanization and processing has turned to other crops;

·       As the grains are grown less frequently in the places where they evolved, the diversity of seeds available is declining;

·       Millet knowledge is being lost - even simple techniques to improve millet yields are no longer common knowledge;

·       The harvesting and processing of millets is made up of ‘drudgery-prone activities’

·       The large number of species of millets also means many different types of processing are needed.

·       Consumers are unaware of millets and their potential nutritional, environmental and economic contributions.

Here there is an important role for all stakeholders to play - Government, CSR bodies and civil society, like Ambuja Foundation - to actively promote millets to ensure that the beauty and benefit of this ‘miracle grain’ is not lost forever!