Millets are well-known traditional crops used particularly by rural and tribal folks to derive essential nutrients. Besides providing better nutrition, millets aid in better regulation of blood sugar compared to rice and wheat grains. They digest slowly which supports rural and tribal people to carry out their livelihood activities. Despite their drought resistant nature, millets were looked down on as “poor man’s food”, with nutritional transition pushing polished rice and refined wheat flour as the staple food. However, the recent surge in diabetes and cardiovascular risks brought attention back to millets. This time the revaluation and interest in millets come from the upper and middle classes from urban areas. India aims to be a global hub for millets and promotes millets for their significance in nutrition and food security as the United Nations (FAO) celebrates 2023 as the “International Year of Millets”.
In this context, this panel will focus on the status of traditional and “neglected” millets and their cultivation and consumption trends. It will discuss opportunities and challenges considering shifting dietary patterns due to nutritional transition, the reversal of millet endorsement by upper and middle classes and the State, challenges for the population from low socio-economic groups, and opportunities for Sustainable Development Goal 2.
The panel’s objectives are to understand millets’ theoretical, empirical, and policy dimensions.
Sub-themes of the panel include:
- Agri-culture and millets
- Millets and folk tradition
- The status of millets in academic research and policy
- Status of millets among traditional producers and consumers
- Nutritional assessment of millets by rural and tribal people
- Millets as grain for the urban, upper, and middle class
- Policies and programs on millets
- Stakeholders (NGOs, Self-Help Groups, Institutes, Companies, etc.) in millet promotion
- Relevance and challenges of millets among stakeholders
- Value addition and marketing of millets
- Shifting millet consumption and nutritional transition
