Dubbed by the health-savvy as nutri-grains, millet has been the victim of uncalled-for neglect. It has gradually been eased out of farmers' fields as well as from consumers' menu because of ill-advised procurement and price support policies. Even those who traditionally consumed millet, have switched to other cereals thanks to the supply of subsidised wheat and rice through the public distribution system (PDS).
The millet group includes sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra) and several small grain cereals such as finger millet (ragi), foxtail millet (kangni) kodo millet (kodo), proso millet (cheena), barnyard millet (sawan) and little millet (kutki). These are hardy, drought-tolerant and heat-resistant crops that generally do not succumb to pests and diseases, and are suited for cultivation in rain-dependent farms. They can provide both food and fodder, and do not require much labour and cash inputs to grow.
The most significant attribute that sets millet apart from most other crops, including wheat and rice, is its high efficiency in converting solar energy into biomass and edible grains through photosynthesis. Millet belongs to the topmost C4 category of plants in terms of photosynthesis efficiency, while wheat and rice are in the C3 category. Besides, millet is very good at sequestering carbon. It, therefore, lessens the environment's total load of greenhouse gases and contribute to mitigating climate change.
Nutrition-wise, millet is a rich source of fibre, minerals and Vitamin B-complex. Pearl millet has the highest content of macro as well as micro nutrients such as iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, folic acid and riboflavin. Finger millet has an exceptionally high content of calcium. A recent policy paper (Number 66) brought out by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), recommends the inclusion of millet-based foods in the mid-day meal scheme and other food-based welfare programmes. This paper, "Role of millets in nutritional security of India", favours the supply of millet through the PDS under the new food security Act.
Interestingly, the data on millet production, productivity and acreage trends, presented in the NAAS policy paper, reveal that its output has continued to grow, albeit at a meagre rate, despite a steady downturn in planted area. While millet acreage between the 1950s and now has shrunk by nearly half, from 36.3 to 18.6 million hectares, output has surged over 30 per cent, from 14 to 18.6 million tonnes. This is largely due to the increase in average per-hectare yield from a mere 387 kg to 1,096 kg, as a result of superior crop varieties and agronomic techniques.
Clearly, the disregard of millet in national strategies for boosting food production is ill-advised. Pranab Mukherjee made an attempt to incentivise scientific millet farming when he was the finance minister, but the emphasis was diluted subsequently. In his 2011-12 Budget, Mukherjee launched a scheme called "Initiative for nutritional security through intensive millet promotion", with an outlay of Rs 300 crore. It aimed at evolving and introducing more productive technologies for raising millet output and encouraging value-addition through processing. Regrettably, the budgetary allocation was later slashed to Rs 175 crore in 2012-14 and just Rs 100 crore in 2013-14.
Another well-designed public-private partnership programme for popularising millet as health food and developing value chains from production to consumption stages, has been launched by the Hyderabad-based Directorate of Sorghum Research. It aims to ensure market-driven production and processing of millet to churn out wholesome convenient foods. The public sector participants in this programme include farm universities, the National Institute of Nutrition, the Central Food Technology Research Institute, the Defence Food Research Laboratory and several research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Among the private companies participating in this project, the most conspicuous is ITC. It uses its "e-Choupal" infrastructure to rope in farmers and entrepreneurs in setting up and operating millet-based value chains. Hundreds of farmers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are now cultivating millet with modern technology.
The NAAS policy paper has come out with numerous sensible suggestions for creating more demand, and spurring the production and processing of millet. The need is to amend official policies and treat millet on a par with wheat and rice in providing price and market support.
surinder.sud@gmail.com
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