Millet is a term used for small seed grasses which provide nutritious cereals grains in a unique short growing cycle of 10-12 weeks. Their importance has been realised recently due to multiple challenges with the United Nations declaring 2023 the International Year of Millets due to efforts of the Indian government.

Millets are crucial for the realisation of sustainable development goals:

• They contain higher protein, fat and fibre content as per the story of millets published by the Karnataka government. Have substantially higher amounts of minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, and B complex vitamins, to help in nutritional security, tackling malnutrition, and hidden hunger and promoting health.
• Are hardy and grow well in dry zones as rain-fed crops, under marginal conditions of soil fertility and moisture. Helpful to small and marginal farmers as they require less capital investment and less risk of crop failures.
• Can be grown in intercropping and mixed cropping as they are less input-intensive boosting incomes.
• Can ensure adaptation to climate change impacting land fertility as millets have biochemical properties to tolerate environmental stress such as high adaptation to droughts with unique short cycle seasons also decreasing risks.
• Can help mitigate carbon emissions as an alternative to rice ( high methane emissions ) due to their low footprint promoting climate-smart agriculture.
• Utilisation of opportunity around market demand for nutritive products with future changes in the supply chain to ensure healthier options for people.

However, there are multiple challenges around the widespread adoption of millets:

• A traditional trend of decline due to policy bias since the green revolution towards wheat and rice continues due to open-ended procurement for wheat and rice making farmers insecure towards millet.
• Consumption has also declined due to taste preferences and lack of awareness.
• Lack of Agri research and availability of quality seeds thus millets have low productivity along with their cultivation in marginal lands. National yield average for ragi is 1.7 tonnes against 3.5 for wheat.
• Non-availability of product-specific cultivars and seed hubs for the breeding and production of high-yield millet seeds.
• Lack of technologies for primary and secondary processing of millets as the processing of small millets is complex
• Absence of market linkages directly to marginal farmers.
• Lack of uniform standardisation and gradation of many millet-based products creates trust issues in consumers.
• Challenges of pest and disease resistance in some millets like sorghum being vulnerable to shoot fly and stem borer, finger millet to blast etc.

However, there are multiple government steps such as the launch of the Millet mission in 2018 as part of the national food security mission, changing culture by promoting millets in Vande Bharat trains, special millets lunch for Members of parliament etc.

There is a further need to develop the millet ecosystem by incentivising farmers, promoting research, ensuring insurance in case of risks, and developing forwards and backward linkages with the promotion of farmer-producer organisations for millet marketing. Dedicated efforts along with awareness of people to alter their taste preferences can ensure widespread adoption and help realise zero hunger as well as promote health (Sustainable development goals 2 and 3).