Experts have called for the inclusion of millets in the country’s public distribution system (PDS) and proposed a shift in thePDS. The current system, they argue, carries hidden economic and environmental costs.
Research by the Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) reveals that the true cost of the PDS in 2021-22 was significantly higher than the government’s budget for the programme.
The TCI’s research demonstrates that replacing a portion of rice with millets in the PDS could lead to substantial cost savings. Through its project on the true cost of food subsidies in India, TCI has estimated the hidden costs associated with the PDS.
In a study published in Environmental Research Letters, researchers show that the true cost of the PDS in 2021-22 was $45.3 billion when the economic and environmental impacts of rice and wheat production were considered, compared with $16.5 billion budgeted by the Union government.
They further demonstrated that replacing 1 kg rice with millets for 200 million PDS beneficiaries would shrink the programme’s true cost by $1.37 billion each year.
Allowing States to source locally grown millets could help in this endeavour. They said that millets, also called Smart Foods, are rich in nutrients and resilient to climate change, they said.
The Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) have called for inclusion of millets in the PDS, which provides subsidised food to low-income families.
A TCI forum on ‘Promoting Millets in the PDS’ was hosted at Icrisat’s Hyderabad campus on Tuesday, bringing together key participants from across the country.
“Millets can reshape our food systems, but only if we align policy, science, and action toward that goal,” Prabhu Pingali, an Icrisat Board Chair and Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute, said in a statement.
The TCI is working with its partners to decode the ‘true cost of the PDS’—considering its environmental, economic, and nutritional impacts and to assess untapped opportunities for improvement.
“For example, by enabling States to source locally grown millets through the work of ICRISAT and its partners, we’re not just supporting farmers — we are strengthening the PDS to provide healthier more sustainable food for the most economically vulnerable,” he said.
Stanford Blade, Director General-Interim, Icrisat, emphasised the need to build on the momentum created by the International Year of Millets-2023 and Icrisat’s Smart Food campaign.