Why in Broadcast?

• PM Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in New Delhi on 18 March, 2023.

Aim of the Conference

• The two-day global conference had sessions on all important issues related to millets (Shree Anna) like promotion and awareness of millets among producers, consumers and other stakeholders; millets’ value chain development; health and nutritional aspects of millets; market linkages; research and development etc.

About Millets

• Millet is a collective term for a number of smallseeded annual grasses cultivated as grain crops, primarily on marginal lands in dry areas in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.
• They include cereals like sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), foxtail millet (kangni/ Italian millet), little millet (kutki), kodo millet, finger millet (ragi/ mandua) etc.
• There is evidence for consumption of millets in the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation (3,300 to 1300 BCE), they were the first crops to be domesticated.

Millets Around the World

• Millets are now grown in more than 130 countries, and are the traditional food for more than half a billion people in Asia and Africa.
• Globally, sorghum (jowar) is the biggest millet crop. The major producers of jowar are the United States, China, Australia, India, Argentina, Nigeria, and Sudan.
• Bajra is another major millet crop and countries like India and some other African countries are its major producers.
• Major millet importing countries in the world include Indonesia, Belgium, Japan, Mexico, Italy, USA, UK, Brazil and Netherlands.

Millets in India

• Millets are mainly a kharif crop in India. During 2018-19, three millet crops i,e. bajra (3.67%), jowar (2.13%), and ragi (0.48%), accounted for about 7 per cent of the gross cropped area in the country.
• As per DGCIS data, India has total export of millets around 159,331.16 metric tonnes against 147, 501.08 metric tonnes last year, thus the country registered a growth of 8.02% in millet exports.
• India’s major export destination are UAE, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, UK and USA.

Way Forward

• The Indian Prime Minister in his message said that it it is a symbol of India’s responsibilities towards the global good.
• International Year of Millets’ is providing a unique opportunity to increase global production, ensure efficient processing, consumption, and subsequently promote better utilization of crop rotations.
• The extended trade of millets on a global level can encourage better connectivity throughout food systems while also promoting it as a key component of the food basket.