WONDER WORLDWONDER WORLD

OF OF

MILLETSMILLETS

India Leads Global Millet Consumption

India tops global listCountry 5Year Average

• India 9,041,765• Nigeria 4,299,211• Niger 1,733,793• China 1,116,505• Burkina Faso 856,337• Mali 701,701• Russian Federation 280,941

Wonder world of Millets

• Capacity to flourish under low rainfall

• Harsh soils

• Low or no external inputs

• God’s own crops

Wonder world of Millets

• Offer superior food

• Fodder and livelihood

• Multiple Security

• High Health

• High Nutrition

Foods of Future

• Currently 44% of total foodgrains

• 75% pulses; 90% sorghum, millets

• Add cultivation in another 25 million Ha

• Nearly 60% of Indian production from millet fields

• Fill gaps left by wheat and rice

Offer Fodder Security

• Sorghum, Peal millet are excellent fodder

• Grow upto 3 mt

• Fresh or dried, support 5 heads of livestock/ha

• All other millets are also fodder

Health & Nutritional Security

• Storehouses of Nutrition

• Both major nutrients and micronutrients

• Can prevent India from being Diabetic Capital of the world

Storehouses of Nutrition

3816.92.31.310.6Pearl millet

179.31.57.67.7Little millet

415.31.51.211.8Wheat

100.70.60.26.8Rice

1115.210.111.2Barnyard millet

270.52.698.3Kodo millet

140.81.92.212.5Proso millet

312.83.3812.3Foxtail millet

3443.92.73.67.3Finger millet

Calcium (mg)

Iron (mg)

Minerals (g)

Fiber (g)

Protein (g)Crop/Nutrituent

415.31.51.211.8Wheat

100.70.60.26.8Rice

179.31.57.67.7Little millet

312.83.3812.3Foxtail millet [KORRA]

3443.92.73.67.3Finger millet [RAGI]

3816.92.31.310.6Pearl millet [SAJJA]

Cal(mg)

Iron (mg)

Min (g)

Fibr(g)

Protn(g)C R O P

Livelihood Security

• Every hectare of millet field supports 100pd

livelihoods

• Together more than 100 mlnpeople live on millet based livelihoods

Ecological Security

• Grown in traditional fashion, millets fields are ecological fields

• No chemical fertilisers, pesticides

• Huge biodiversity

Wonder world of Millets

• Biodiverseenvironment

• Cereals, pulses, oilseeds

• Baranaja,

• Saat Dhan,

• PannenduPanta

Wonder world of Millets

• Uncultivated foods

• Food variety

• Fodder variety

• Self regenerating soils

• Carbon fixation –climate change

Marginalising Millets

• Name it Coarse Cereal not Nutricereal

• No millet based PDS

• Large fallowisation

Marginalising Millets

• 35% shrinkage in millet area

• 4 m Ha fallowed

• Cheap PDS has demolished millet food culture

• Plates of the poor to elite tables

Recapturing Millets

• Crop of Food Sovereignty

• Concept, not crop

• New millet PDS

• Control by the marginalised

• MINI

Enabling people to seize the moment

• Creating enabling conditions

• Move away from the Rice-Wheat dependcy?

• Resist organic monocultures?

• Challenge the castles of dominant paradigm of agricultural research?

• No hybrid, GE led organic

The Millet Moment

• Handing millets the food destiny of India

• Shaping the new food politics

• Redesigning the farming landscape

• Rainfed India leading the farming renaissance

DEMANDS FOR MILLETS

• High priority in the National Food Security Act

• Put millets into public food systems

• Recognise millets as Climate Change Compliant Crops and promote their cultivation and consumption

MILLETSFuture of

Food and Farming

Climate Compliant Crops

• High Heat, low rainfall

• Drought conditions

• High malnutrition

• Millets as answers to all these challenges

• Wheat & rice may disappear

Heat & The Millet

• Sorghum and high heat

• Bajra and high heat

• Drought tolerance capabilities

• Natural C4 crops

• Thermally sensitive wheat

• GHG producing paddy rice

Comparision of Water Requirement of Different Crops

(in mm)

300 350450

2100

350400 500

600

1250

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Water requirement (mm)

Pulses

Bajra (Pearl millet)

Ragi (Finger millet)

Jowar (Sorghum millet)

Groundnut

Maize

Cotton

Rice

Sugarcane

Water guzzlers vswater conservers

Price Water Couper

• One kg of paddy needs 3-4000 litres of water

• If priced for water, will cost Rs.40 per kg @ one paise/litre; rice: Rs.70

• Every acre of paddy uses up 6 mlnlitres of water

• Imagine the savings by millets

Rain Uncertain

• Traditional millet farming systems, diversity

• Early rain, normal rain, delayed rain, low rain, heavy rain: a solution for every rain

• Non irrigated environments

• Uniform experience all across India

415.31.51.211.8Wheat

100.70.60.26.8Rice

179.31.57.67.7Little millet

312.83.3812.3Foxtail millet [KORRA]

3443.92.73.67.3Finger millet [RAGI]

3816.92.31.310.6Pearl millet [SAJJA]

Cal(mg)

Iron (mg)

Min (g)

Fibr(g)

Protein

(g)C R O P

Carbon Sequesters

• Traditional millet cropping systems

• Legumes with sorghum and millets

• Carbon sequestering capacity

Honouring Millets

* ANNOUNCE• Biodiversity bonus

• Water conservation bonus

• Climate change bonus

• Rs.5000/Ha for minor millets

• Rs.2000/Ha for major millets

• Peanuts in front of 140000 crsubsidy on chemical fertilisers

People - Climate

• Food, nutrition and health Sovereign communities

• Dryland communities where most poor and marginalised live

• Non irrigated rainfed crops

• Create multiple securities

• Honour and build communities of the poor and the marginalised

Millets for North East

• Konidhan; Dr Chaudhry

• Mapping Millet Diversity

• Value addition to existing dietary practices

• Climate change and adaptability

Millets for North East

• Nostalgia in Nagaland

• Shifting Cultivation and Diversity

• Farmers recollection of millet varieties in their diet

WE HAVE

THE POWER

TO HEAL

THE PLANET