Economics
Context: The United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets (IYM). It was an Indian Initiative. It is to make IYM 2023 a ‘People’s Movement’ alongside positioning India as the ‘Global Hub for Millets’.
About Millets:
- It is a common term to categorise small-seeded grasses that are often termed Nutri-cereals or dryland-cereals and includes sorghum, pearl millet, ragi, small millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and Kodo millet, among others.
- They are also hardier and drought-resistant crops.
- Millets can grow in poor soil conditions with less water, fertiliser and pesticides.
- They can withstand higher temperatures, making them the perfect choice as ‘climate-smart cereals.
Distribution of millets production across the world:
- India, Nigeria and China are the largest producers of millets in the world, accounting for more than 55% of the global production.
- For many years, India was a major producer of millets.
- However, in recent years, millet production has increased dramatically in Africa.
- In India, pearl millet is the fourth-most widely cultivated food crop after rice, wheat and maize.
- Millets are available almost across India.
India and millets:
- ‘Millets’ were among the first crops to be domesticated in India with several evidence of its consumption during the Indus valley civilization.
- In India, millets are primarily a kharif crop, requiring less water and agricultural inputs than other similar staples.
- Millets are important by virtue of its mammoth potential to generate livelihoods, increase farmers’ income and ensure food and nutritional security all over the world.
- Recognising the enormous potential of Millets, which also aligns with several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Government of India (GoI) has prioritized Millets.
- In April 2018, Millets were rebranded as “Nutri Cereals”, followed by the year 2018 being declared as the National Year of Millets, aiming at larger promotion and demand generation.
- Almost 98% of it is just three cereals — bajra, jowar and ragi— with small millets accounting for the rest.
New invention:
- The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has bred Pusa-1201, a hybrid bajra.
- It gives an average grain yield of over 2.8 tonnes and potential of 4.5 tonnes per hectare.
- It matures in 78-80 days and is resistant to downy mildew and blast, both deadly fungal diseases.
- The grains have 13-14% protein, 55 mg/ kg iron (normal level is 50 mg/ kg) and 48 mg/ kg zinc (normal: 35 mg/ kg).
Significance of Millets:
- Millets can also help in tackling health challenges such as obesity, diabetes and lifestyle problems as they are gluten-free, have a low glycemic index and are high in dietary fibre and antioxidants.
- Millets are Nutri-cereals that are highly nutritious and known to have high nutrient content which includes protein, essential fatty acids, dietary fibre, B-Vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium and magnesium.
- It can provide nutritional security and protect against nutritional deficiency, especially among children and women.
- It will also be critical for climate change measures in drylands and important for smallholder and marginal farmers.
Challenges of millets production:
- Selling price was low but now decreasing: For the poor, both in urban and rural areas, rice and wheat were once aspirational foods.
- But due to the Green Revolution and the National Food Security Act of 2013, two-thirds of India’s population receives up to 5 kg of wheat or rice per person per month at Rs 2 and Rs 3/kg respectively.
- The present government has, in fact, made the issue of the two fine cereals free of cost from January 2023.
- This move further tilted the scales against millets.
- Work required to make it ready for eating: Even for the better-off, rolling rotis is easier with wheat than millet flour.
- This is because the gluten proteins, for all their drawbacks, make the wheat dough more cohesive and elastic.
- The resultant breads come out light and fluffy, which isn’t the case with bajra or jowar.
- Low per hectare yields: For farmers, the national average is roughly 1 tonne for jowar, 1.5 tonnes for bajra and 1.7 tonnes for ragi, as against 3.5 tonnes for wheat and 4 tonnes for paddy — are a disincentive.
- With access to assured irrigation, they would tend to switch to rice, wheat, sugarcane, or cotton.
- Absence of Government support: The absence of government procurement at minimum support price (MSP), unlike in paddy and wheat, make farmers hesitant to grow even this high-yielding and naturally bio-fortified bajra (Pusa-1201).
- Orphan crops: The millets have been reduced to “orphan crops” over the years, planted largely in marginal areas prone to moisture stress.
Suggestion measures:
- Promoting Use of millets: The nutritional traits, similar to bajra, are present in other millets too: jowar (sorghum), ragi (finger millet), Kodo (Kodo millet), kutki (little millet), kakun (foxtail millet), sanwa (barnyard millet), cheena (proso millet), kuttu (buckwheat) and chaulai (amaranth).
- Their use should also be increased.
- Besides midday meals, millets could be served in the form of ready-to-eat foods such as cookies, laddu, murukku, nutrition bars, and extruded snacks (think healthier versions of Maggi, Kurkure, or Cheetos).
- Huge market base for millets: India, according to the latest official data for 2021-22, has 26.52 crore children enrolled in 14.89 lakh schools from the pre-primary to higher secondary levels.
- In addition, 71 crore children and 1.80 crore pregnant and lactating women are being provided supplementary nutrition in 13.91 lakh Anganwadis care centres.
- Given the dire need to alleviate micronutrient malnutrition — especially iron and zinc deficiency that are major causes of anaemia and stunting respectively, while also contributing to impaired cognitive performance and vulnerability to diarrhoea — millets could be made a staple part of children’s diets.
- One bajra meal each day in Government Schemes: Every schoolchild and Anganwadis beneficiary can be served one daily hot meal based on locally-sourced bajra, jowar, ragi, Kodo, or kutki, along with a 150-ml glass of milk and one egg.
- It will help combat hidden hunger, besides giving a boost to crop diversification by creating demand for millions of small millet, dairy and poultry farmers.
- The Centre has two existing schemes — Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman and Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 — with a combined budget of Rs 30,496.82 crore in 2022-23. These can be better leveraged by making them more millets-focused.
- Government’s funding: The Centre could fund any state willing to procure millets specific to their region exclusively for distribution through schools and Anganwadis.
- Odisha already has a dedicated millet 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.
- Combined funding: A combination of central funding with decentralised procurement linked to nutrition goals — specifically the eradication of hidden hunger among school-age children — can do for millets what the Food Corporation of India achieved with rice and wheat.
Way Forward:
Therefore, it is evident that there is a need to promote the production of more millets by providing price support to farmers as there’s not only a social dimension but also a nutritional and environmental aspect associated with these cereals.
There’s a need for developing a decentralised model of processing capabilities so that the growers stand to benefit at a community level and in the growing regions. Thus, Promoting millets could help governments save expenditure on health and nutrition.
Source: Indian Express
Previous Year Question
Q.1) With reference to the “Tea Board” in India, consider the following statements:
- The Tea Board is a statutory body.
- It is a regulatory body attached to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
- The Tea Board’s Head Office is situated in Bengaluru.
- The Board has overseas office at Dubai and Moscow.
Which of the statements given above are correct? (2022)
- 1 and 3
- 2 and 4
- 3 and 4
- 1 and 4