NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF MILLETS – GEOGRAPHY
News: Explained|
How are nutrients in millets affected by processing and polishing?
What's in the news?
● The
U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared 2023 to be the ‘International Year of Millets’, giving these crops
a shot in the arm even as countries worldwide are looking to them for their
ability to grow in environmental conditions that the climate crisis is
rendering more common.
Key takeaways:
● Millets
are becoming more popular in India as well because of their low input requirements and high nutritional
density, both of which are valuable for a country whose food security is
expected to face significant challenges in the coming decades.
● However,
the consumption of millets faces one threat that has already overtaken India’s
major food crops - grain-processing.
Millets:
● Millets
are fundamentally grasses.
● They
are cultivated worldwide, but especially in the tropical parts of Africa and Asia, as cereal crops.
● Some
of the more common varieties include pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus),
barnyard millet (Echinochloa utilis), finger millet (Eleusine coracana), and
foxtail millet (Setaria italica).
Millets and India:
● According
to the Agricultural and Processed Foods Development Authority, India is the world’s largest producer of
millets.
● In
2021-2022, the country accounted for 40.51% of the world’s pearl millet
production and 8.09% of sorghum.
● Within
the country, pearl millet made up 60% of all the millet production, sorghum
27%, and ragi 11%.
Significance of Millet Cultivation:
1. Low input cost:
● Cereals
are good for the soil, have shorter cultivation cycles and require less
cost-intensive cultivation.
2. Climate resilience:
● These
unique features make millets suited for and resilient to India’s varied Agro-climatic
conditions.
● They
can withstand high temperatures, floods,
and droughts because they are hardy crops.
3. Drought tolerance:
● Cereals
are not water or input-intensive, making them a sustainable strategy for
addressing climate change and building resilient agri-food systems.
● They
require less water. It is about
one-third of rice, wheat and sugarcane.
4. Social benefits:
● Millets
possess immense potential in the battle against
poverty and provide food, nutrition, fodder and livelihood security. In
rainfed farming areas, millet cultivation provides livelihood to 50% of tribal
and rural population.
5. Agri-growth:
● India is the largest
global producer with a 41% market share. A compound
annual growth rate of 4.5% is projected for the global millet market in the
coming decade.
6. Restoration of ecosystems and sustainability:
● Land degradation
has been a major problem in India.
● Drought-tolerant crops
(like millets) with low dependence on chemical inputs would put far less
pressure on ecosystems.
7. Biofuel and climate resilience:
● Millets
also offer a significant cost advantage over maize as a feedstock for bio-ethanol production.
● They
have higher photosynthetic efficiency.
Their potential yield is unaffected by higher carbon dioxide levels.
8. Addressing SDGs:
● Millet
farming has led to women’s empowerment.
● The
Odisha Millet Mission saw 7.2 million women emerge as ‘agri-preneurs’.
9. Nutritional benefits:
● They
are a rich source of macronutrients and micronutrients like calcium, protein
and iron.
● They
have a low glycemic index that prevents
type 2 diabetes. They can help to prevent cardiovascular diseases, lower
blood pressure.
10. Increased income:
● Boosting
millet cultivation will empower the average farmer and achieve the objectives
of enhancing incomes and improving crop diversification.
Challenges in Millet Cultivation:
1. Effects of Green Revolution:
● The
Green Revolution succeeded in making India food sufficient, however, it also
led to water-logging, soil erosion,
groundwater depletion and the unsustainability of agriculture.
2. Deficit mind-set:
● Current
policies are still based on the “deficit” mind-set of the 1960s.
3. Biased policies:
● The
procurement, subsidies and water policies are biased towards rice and wheat.
4. Skewed cropping pattern:
● Three
crops (rice, wheat and sugarcane) corner 75 to 80 percent of irrigated water.
5. Lack of diversification:
● Diversification
of cropping patterns towards cereals, pulses, oilseeds, horticulture is needed
for more equal distribution of water, sustainable and climate-resilient
agriculture.
6. Lack of marketing facilities:
● In
some village areas farmers do not getting the market to sell their crops.
● To
sell crops in bulk they have to locate certain small shops since there is no
profitable market or demand nearby. This also makes the distribution of crops
difficult.
7. Low crop productivity and high labor intensity:
● Cultivating
millets requires strong manual labor and is difficult for a single person to
do. Added to this is the fact that certain millets turn out to be low in
productivity.
8. Lack of investment in
millet product development and promotion/ advertisements.
9. Improper suitable processing units close to millet
fields:
● It
causes local producers to take their produce to distant places. For example,
raw grains of Kodo millets produced in Tamil Nadu, need to be transported to
Maharashtra for processing.