Various stakeholders from across the country gathered in the national capital on Tuesday to discuss the “crop of the future” and emphasised that challenges of food security, farm livelihoods, and nutrition diversity can be resolved in a climate-resilient manner, by building on the momentum generated during the International Year of Millets (IYOM).
They were sharing experiences at a multi-stakeholder conference, ‘Shaping Perspectives on Practice and Policy for Millets in India’, organised by the Reliance Foundation.
Policymakers, farmer representatives, development sector stakeholders, researchers, and industry representatives echoed the need for greater collaboration, increased farmer-focused efforts, and deliberated successes and challenges from both practice and policy within India’s millet landscape.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shubha Thakur, took part in the conference and highlighted the government’s efforts to take the millet agenda ahead.
“We have created six task forces, in the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health, one in the nutrition sector, to continue the journey of millets. Millets are a crop for the future,” she said, adding that it is heartening to see the Reliance Foundation working with farmers.
“A multistakeholder approach is very important if millets are to succeed. To help increase farmers’ incomes, there needs to be value addition through branding, export potential, and more,” Thakur said.
Reliance Foundation CEO Jagannatha Kumar said that the decade has been historic for the global food systems dialogue, and transformational for millets.
“We are witnessing the discourse change to millets being sought after and India has led this change from the front. The strong momentum generated so far should enable us to leapfrog into an era when millets are coming of age in providing food security and diversity amidst climate change,” he said.
Kumar went on to say that this will also help balance natural resources through climate-resilient farming practices while securing better livelihoods for small and marginal farmers through a value-chain approach.
“It is essential to build on this momentum, with shared development goals. At Reliance Foundation, we are deeply committed to diversifying food and farming systems with millets and we will continue to build on discussions such as today’s along with other opportunities to share our learnings with stakeholders across the ecosystem,” he said.
A publication, ‘Fostering Resilience for Sustainability: Reliance Foundation’s Millet Experiences’, was also released. It documented learnings from millet interventions in different states.
The report showcases end-to-end interventions that include making quality seed accessible to farmers, providing continued technical support, strengthening market linkages, empowering women’s agency, and building awareness about millets.
Since 2010, the Reliance Foundation has been focusing on sustainable agriculture and strengthening food systems through a collaborative approach with various stakeholders.
The work with millet small and marginal farmers is another step to build resilience in the face of changing climate while enhancing the nutritional status of communities. Having observed 2018 as its ‘National Year of Millets’, India presented the proposal for the ‘International Year of Millets’ (IYOM) in the United Nations.
At the 75th General Assembly session of the UN in March 2021, the year 2023 was declared IYOM to increase global awareness of the benefits of consuming and growing millets.
India is the world’s largest millet producer and its average production of 16.93 million metric tons during 2019-22 was about 11% higher than the production during 2014-18. Though the area under millet cultivation has reduced, productivity has markedly increased over the years.
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