Back in 2012, a White Paper titled ‘Mainstreaming coarse cereals through welfare programmes’ for the government paved the way for India promoting the International Year of Millets 2023 through the United Nations.

Millets lend themselves to multiple uses: Food + Feed + Fodder/Forage + Fuel + Ferment. There are not many crops with such varied utility. Market exists for each one of the applications and it is vital to engage stakeholders in each segment.

Beyond 2023, millets deserve sustained policy support, investment support and research support.

It is critical that production growth and consumption growth move in tandem. Millet production should be substantially demand-driven so that the benefits of a growing market flow to growers in good measure. Demand spurs supplies.

Income, nutrition

First, for growers, food is a source of livelihood and income; for consumers, food is a source of nutrition and health; for the processing industry food crops are raw material. So we need to design awareness campaign accordingly.

Promoting the health benefits of millets among consumers by making people aware of the wholesomeness of millets is critical. We need to make millet consumption ‘fashionable’ for the growing middle-class.

While corporates that market millet-based products will reach out to urban middle-class consumers, vulnerable sections need to consume more of the nutritionally superior millets. For the purpose, differentiated communication strategy for different sections of consumers is necessary.

Millet-based foods have to be easy-to-prepare or ‘cookable’ and palatable/tasty. This provides an opportunity to explore preparation of ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook food products with sufficient shelf-life.

There is a market for millet-based foods/snacks for every age group and every category of consumers.

A customised communication is required for addressing different stakeholders – growers, processing industry, household consumers, vulnerable sections. Promoting millets as ‘Smart-food’ is critical.

The first step is to work with each one of the stakeholder groups is to understand clearly their perspective of the market and constraints they face.

Food habits do evolve over time, but rather slowly. Our country has long been used to consuming rice and wheat – often at subsidized rates. But accelerated and targeted promotion of millets can help reduce the burden on fine cereals rice and wheat.

Why not start with school children? Millet-based food for Midday Meal scheme would be ideal.

Alongside awareness campaign, there’s a need to engage with all stakeholders. Engage with growers (mainly FPOs) to understand their challenges relating to cultivation, input availability, quality, cost, agronomy and so on.

Engaging with input suppliers (seeds, fertilizers, agro-chemicals, banks) and linking FPOs with millet processing companies to ensure easy marketability would be a win-win. Corporate houses may be encouraged to undertake ‘contract farming’.

Encourage Startups to work especially towards more efficient supply chains, while food tech/ food research institutions like CFTRI can play a vital role in coming up with new products and processes.

Creating a Research-Industry Interface will catalyse production of nutritionally rich, ready-to-eat, economically-priced millet-based snacks/food for mass consumption. Then there’s the export market for organic millets waiting to be tapped.

Finally, let’s identify Millet Champions and Millet Ambassadors to take it to the masses.

The writer is a policy commentator and agribusiness specialist .This is an excerpt of keynote speech delivered by the writer at ICAR-IIMR International Nutri-Cereal Convention 2023 held in Hyderabad recently

comment COMMENT NOW