New Delhi’s campaign to make millet a global brand has got a push with the United Nations accepting India’s proposal to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The cereal has been gaining traction among the health-conscious in India and abroad who go for millet pancakes and cookies.
The rebranding begins with the name. Millet is no longer promoted as mota anaj; instead, it will be called shree anna or nutri cereal, a superfood high in iron and calcium. The resilient grain also fits in well with the current global climatic concerns – it consumes little water, has low carbon footprint and grows in arid conditions.
India’s millet campaign revolves around a simple but powerful theme — it’s good for you and the planet. New Delhi’s first goal is to achieve $100 million worth of millet exports by FY25, up from $64 million in 2021-22. “Millet-based dishes are being popularised and adapted to the cuisines of various countries through the Ministry of External Affairs. Millet festivals are also being organised in hotels of select countries,” says M Angamuthu, chairman of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an arm of the Union ministry of commerce and industry. “The government is also supporting startups by women and new entrepreneurs who are exporting millet and millet-based products. We are facilitating them by organising food-sampling and tasting campaigns at departmental stores, supermarkets and hypermarket chains,” he says, adding that millets are primarily being promoted in the US, Europe and the Gulf countries.
India has been producing and consuming millets since the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation some 5,000 years ago. Even today, the nation is the largest producer of millets in the world. Some of the major-millet producing states are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Agricultural economist and NITI Aayog member Professor Ramesh Chand estimates that about 40% of millets, other than sorghum (jowar), is produced in India. (Jowar, which is cultivated in large quantities in the US for feed and energy is excluded from Chand’s calculation.) The other hub is Africa, which accounts for 44% of global millet production (again, excluding jowar).According to the second advance estimates of production of major crops for 2022-23, released earlier this week, India’s millet production is about 16 MMT (million metric tonnes), almost the same as in 2021-22 but a drop from the high of 18 MMT in 2020-21. While 16 major varieties of millets are cultivated in India, three dominate — sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra) and finger millet (ragi). Others include minor millets (kangani), proso millet (cheena), kodo millet, barnyard millet (sawa/sanwa/jhangora) and little millet (kutki).
The 2022-23 Economic Survey put India’s millet production at 50.9 million tonnes (chapter 8, page 252) — but it is an error. “It’s a mistake. In all probability, maize production numbers got clubbed with millet,” says Chand of NITI Aayog, adding that productivity breakthrough in millet is indispensable at this juncture. “Millet production in India has been more or less the same since the early 1970s. Total production will increase only under two conditions —either the area under millet cultivation grows or the yield increases. For a rise in yield, we must have a productivity breakthrough. Better R&D in millet is an imperative,” he says.
Millet was ignored by India’s green revolution of the 1960s and the 70s. The cereal received some attention only in 2012 when the then government crafted a policy called Initiative for Nutritional Security through Intensive Millet Production (INSIMP). In 2018 millet was declared a “nutri cereal” and added to the national food security mission. Rs 300 crore was earmarked for its development. It was also in 2018 that India proposed to the UN to declare 2023 as the international year of millets — the proposal was accepted in 2021.
Millet received a shot in the arm when the government earmarked an outlay of Rs 800 crore for millet-based products under its Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme; 33 applicants have been selected for this. Then came the Union budget which said the government would support the Indian Institute of Millets Research in Hyderabad in sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level. GoI has also provided a $500,000 grant to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) to support activities related to the International Year of Millets, according to a reply to a question in Lok Sabha earlier this month.
HEALTHY SIGN
Private entrepreneurs and hotel chains are stepping in to meet the demand for millets. ITC Hotels has included millet-based dishes in their buffets — from risotto, jowar kebab and jowar tur dal tadka to kutki khao suey and kodo halwa. Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai sources various kinds of millets for risotto, tehri and khichdi. “We have developed a buffet concept for millets for our banquet events. We have also introduced millet stations where various dishes are displayed,” says the hotel’s executive chef Amit Chowdhury. “Most millets are gluten-free and are suited for making phulkas and cookies.”
Anurag Katriar, CEO of deGustibus Hospitality, says his restaurant Indigo Deli has started a breakfast menu with foxtail millet upma and ragi pancakes. “These are both nutritious and delicious,” he says.
The growing demand for millets in upmarket restaurants is a healthy sign. After all, India’s journey to make millets a global sensation will remain unsuccessful if its domestic market gives the grain a thumbs down. There is a long way to go. Chand points out that the share of millets in the total cereal intake in India is just 6%, down from 25% at the beginning of the Green Revolution.
The government is now banking on the growing tribe of millet entrepreneurs to popularise the long-neglected cereal in the domestic market and to boost its exports. One of the millet advocates is KVR Subba Reddy. In 2017, he quit his job as a cost accountant in Delhi to experiment with millets at his native village Anupuru in Andhra Pradesh. Today, his company Sattva Millets and Food Products engages about 150 farmers to cultivate millets, which are then processed at his plant and sold under the brand, mibbles. “We are focusing a lot on ready-tocook and ready-to-eat segments of millets. We offer all kinds of products, ranging from millet idli rava and millet upma rava to millet biscuits,” he says. Last year, he exported a consignment to Europe, and, this year, he is looking forward to exploring the US market. Pune-based Sharmila Oswal, who calls herself a milletpreneur, is a co-founder of Basillia Organics. In the last two years, it has exported millets to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), US, the Netherlands and Australia. Her products include millet noodles, millet cookies, millet namkeen and millet pasta. She nudges parents to pack millet lunch boxes for their children. “Consumers are willing to pay a little more because millets are nutritious. Once production grows, prices should come down,” she says.
The top five countries importing millets from India are UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, US and Japan. “The Indian Institute of Millet Research has identified 200 new entrepreneurs of millets. The startups are creating value-added products and many of them have started exporting in small quantities. We are promoting them through international fairs,” says Angamuthu.
India is pulling out all the stops to create a new global millet order. But it will have to address a few problems. One is the low shelf life of value-added millet products. “It is required to be increased up to 6 to 12 months,” says an APEDA document seen by ET. Also, there are no separate Harmonized System (HS) codes — an internationally standardised numerical method to classify traded products — for millets. Angamuthu says, “The government is in the process of creating HS codes for millets. APEDA has sent a request to the director general of foreign trade, which in turn has taken up the issue with the finance ministry.”