Climate-resilient grains

UN resolution will help boost awareness about millets

The unanimous approval by the United Nations General Assembly of the resolution sponsored by India with the backing of 70 countries to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets is a welcome step towards resurrecting these nutrient-dense and climate change-resilient food crops. These small-sized, multi-utility grains, commonly termed pseudo-cereals or coarse-grains, but aptly rechristened as nutri-cereals, had been elbowed out of production and consumption by rice and wheat after the Green Revolution. The policy of procurement-based price support for these two fine-grained but less nutritious staples, coupled with their supply through the public distribution system at highly subsidised rates, also contributed to the millets’ decline. The UN move may, hopefully, create awareness of the health and ecological benefits of millets to boost their demand and, hence, output. This is needed especially in the developing countries, where millets have historically been the staple food but are no longer so. In the developed nations, millets’ demand is picking up.

While stark hunger, as reflected in starvation deaths, has more or less been banished from the world, malnutrition (read undernourishment or disguised hunger) is still rampant. Nearly two billion people are reckoned to suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, resulting in stunted physical and mental growth in children. Worse still, about 45 per cent of the deaths of children under five are attributed to deficient or imbalanced nutrition. Ending malnutrition and promoting sustainable farming have, therefore, rightfully, been included in the 17 Social Development Goals, adopted at the Earth Summit in 2015. Millets hold the key to achieve this objective because they offer both health gains and sustainability of production under changing climate. Globally, most millet crops have gone out of cultivation. The few surviving ones include Pearl Millet, Barley, sorghum, Quinoa, Amaranth, Bulgur (Cracked wheat), Rye, Kamut (Khorasen wheat), and Freekeh (green durum wheat). The major millets grown in India are Pearl Millet (Bajra), Sorghum (Jowar), Finger Millet (Ragi), Foxtail Millet (Kangni), Proso (Cheena), Barnyard Millet (Sawan), Little Millet (Kutki), and Kodo Millet. All these are rich in fibre, minerals, and Vitamins. Pearl Millet, for instance, has the highest content of macro as well as micronutrients such as iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, folic acid, and riboflavin. Many of these are missing in rice or wheat. Scientific studies link millets intake to blood sugar control, reduced inflammation, improved digestion, and lower risk of heart diseases and cancer. 

Interestingly, there are some cogent ecological reasons as well for promoting millet cultivation. These crops are the most efficient converters of solar energy into food and biomass. In terms of photosynthetic efficiency, they belong to the top C4 category, against C3 of wheat and rice. More importantly, millet crops sequester carbon from the atmosphere while paddy fields spew methane, a greenhouse gas. Besides, these are hardy, drought-tolerant, and heat-resistant crops that generally do not succumb to pests and diseases and are suited for cultivation without assured irrigation. However, regardless of their merits, millets may find it tough to compete economically with water-guzzling, but highly profitable, crops like paddy and sugarcane without substantial financial sops. But these can certainly be grown with advantage on rain-dependent lands with suitable technological and marketing support. In the longer run, strategies would need to be formulated to make millet cultivation economically as rewarding as that of rice, wheat or sugarcane to partly replace them.