The importance of millet

Policy must promote production and distribution of coarse cereals

A recent proposal of the National Advisory Council (NAC) that deserves policy attention relates to the supply of millet and other coarse cereals through the public distribution system (PDS). It is an idea whose time has come for many reasons. Apart from being nutritious, millet can also bridge the food gap likely to be created by the implementation of a food security law. Existing stocks of rice and wheat may not fully meet the food gap created by a country-wide PDS system implementing a right to food Act. The inclusion of millet is a good idea for several reasons. Millet, such as sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) and other coarse staples like maize, barley, oats and the like may not match rice and wheat in grain quality, but they certainly score over them in nutritional value. In fact, these are now often described as “nutri-cereals”. While the protein content of many millet is close to that of wheat, they are richer in vitamins, especially vitamin B, iron, phosphorous and many other key micronutrients. Besides, these are gluten-free alternatives to finer cereals which make them alkaline rather than acidic in nature. That explains why coarse cereals have been a preferred staple food in many parts of the country, especially in rural areas. Regrettably, they have been gradually edged out of the food chain largely because the government began supplying highly subsidised wheat and rice at cheaper rates. Despite policy neglect and lack of subsidies, millet and coarse grains have managed to survive, even if on a progressively shrinking acreage, because of their continued use as livestock and bird feed, and growing industrial uses such as for production of starch and alcoholic beverages.

 

An important feature of these crops is that they require much less water to grow than rice and wheat do and can be successfully cultivated in semi-arid tropics and on poor soils. The biggest factor in their favour is that these crops are innately more efficient converter of energy and plant nutrients into biomass, including grains. Many among them are, therefore, capable of delivering higher tonnage per hectare than wheat and rice with modern agronomic technology and improved crop varieties, including hybrids, which are, thankfully, available in large number now. Apart from these benefits, promoting millet and other coarse cereals would also be needed given that crop yields in irrigated areas have almost reached a plateau. If India is to meet the rising demand for nutritious food and if rainfed agriculture has to experience a revolution in productivity, this is where research in agriculture and price policy should focus. Water-guzzling crops like rice and wheat should, in fact, give way to millet and other coarse cereals in areas where the former are irrigated with groundwater, causing rapid depletion of underground water aquifers, to prevent today’s grain bowls from becoming tomorrow’s deserts.