Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters hosted the International Year of Millets 2023 (IYM) opening ceremony on Tuesday.
A wide variety of cereals are referred to as millets, including fonio, sorghum (or big millet), teff, pearl, proso, foxtail, barnyard, small, kodo, browntop, finger, and Guinea millets. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia rely on them as a major source of food. They contribute to ensuring food security in locations where they are culturally relevant and are firmly ingrained in Indigenous Peoples' cultures and customs.
"Millets are amazing, nutritionally dense ancient crops. When it comes to empowering smallholder farmers and achieving our joint goals, millets may play a significant role.
to the FAO, 2023 is International Millets Year. 08 Dec 2018
The Food and Agriculture Organization has accepted India's proposal to mark an International Year of Millets in 2023. (FAO).
According to 2018 has been designated the national year of millets in India.
A range of small-seeded annual grasses that are grown as grain crops, primarily on marginal soils in dry areas of temperate, subtropical, and tropical climates, are collectively referred to as millet.
Ragi (finger millet), Jowar (sorghum), Sama (little millet), Bajra (pearl millet), and Variga are some of the popular millets available in India (Proso millet).
As a Smart Food, millets
Because millets have higher levels of protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals like iron than wheat and rice, they are less expensive and more nutritious.
Millet, a dietary staple and the main source of protein in most of the developing world. Globally, millet is the sixth most cultivated grain after corn, rice, wheat, barley, and sorghum. It is very much suited to drought conditions and has great natural biodiversity. It can be cultivated in a variety of locations. They are one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purpose.
Millets are grown on marginal lands by some of the poorest and marginalized communities – the Dalits, the Adivasis, and the women in the dry land and hilly region. The millet symbolizes the food and knowledge sovereignty of Indian farmers and ensures a life of dignity and self-reliance for them. Most of the millet fields are inherently bio-diverse and no real farmer grows millets as a monocrop. They grow millets in combination with a host of pulses, legumes, vegetables, and oilseeds.There are many factors that make millets more sustainable as crops. According to ICRISAT, one rice plant requires nearly 2.5 times the amount of water required by a single millet plant of most varieties. That is why millets are primarily grown in arid regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Millets can also withstand higher temperatures. Crops like rice and wheat can’t tolerate temperature more than 38-degree centigrade, while millets can tolerate a temperature of more than 460 degrees C. They can grow in saline soil. They can thus be grown as an important solution for farmers grappling with climate changes sea level rise which leads to an increase in soil salinity, heatwaves, droughts, floods etc. Due to this peculiar nature, they are termed as the “miracle grains” or the “crops of the future”. Millets are cultivated as dual-purpose crops (food and fodder). Millets help in reducing the atmospheric CO2 as this contribute to mitigating the climate change.
India is the largest producer of many kinds of millets, which are often referred to as coarse cereals. Apart from India, Nigeria, China, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, Senegal are the leading millet producers in the world
