Millets in Diet: The Right Approach

(MainsGS3:Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country)

Context:

For centuries, Millets have been cultivated across India and have been an integral part of our food system and festivals.
The resilience and ability to grow in all kinds of soil and weather conditions while requiring minimum inputs, and still providing the right nutrients for sustenance and growth, make millets an invaluable food.

Focus on traditional eating food:

Our traditional eating practices put a lot of focus on eating food as per the season as it not only ensures easy availability of nutrients at just the time they are needed, but it also ties in beautifully with farming practices and crop cycles.
Another critical learning from indigenous food wisdom is the food combinations that are inherent to our cuisines.
These food combinations ensure that the right ingredients come together and make digestion and nutrient assimilation easier.
Combining millets with pulses, spices, fats, etc., also ensures that limiting amino acids are compensated for, protein quality/digestibility is improved and the effect of anti-nutrients like phytates, tannins, trypsin, etc., is reduced.

Benefits of millets:

Millets are part of a group of small-grained cereal crops used as both food and fodder.
Experts believe them to be one of the oldest foods known to humans and the first among cereals to be cultivated for domestic purposes.
There is even evidence of the consumption of millet in the Indus Valley civilisation and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon apparently included millet among their treasured plants.
Millets offer more than one nutrient to the diet and are considered more nutritious than rice and wheat.
Millets are rich in iron, dietary fibre, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc and vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid, and niacin.
These grains contain 7-12% protein, 2-5% fat, 65-75% carbohydrates and 15-20% dietary fibre. Millets are also gluten-free.

Beneficial for farmers:

Growing millets is also beneficial for farmers since this rain-fed crop requires less fertile land and water, growing fairly well on dry land.
They have a short growing season as compared to other major crops and can be grown in intercropping or under mixed cropping with pulses and oil seeds.
With a low carbon and water footprint, millet crops can be cultivated without extensive use of fertilisers and pesticides and can survive extreme weather.
Presently, millets are grown in more than 130 countries and consumed as a traditional food by over half a billion people across Asia and Africa.

India’s efforts to promote millet:

As per the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, the world is moving backwards in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition.
The Union government promoted millets under the Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millets Promotion (INSIMP), as a sub-scheme of Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) between 2011 and 2014.
In the following years, NITI Aayog worked on a framework to introduce millets under the public distribution system for “nutritional support”.
In 2021, the Centre approved the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN), earlier known as the mid-day meal scheme, in government and government-aided schools and advised State governments to include millets in the midday meal menu to enhance the nutritional outcome.

Conclusion:

India’s efforts to promote the consumption and production of millet got a boost when the UNGA accepted the country’s proposal and dedicated 2023 to spreading awareness about these grains.