What the Union Budget’s focus on millet might mean for the humble grain

While these do not make for direct SOPs to cultivators in the form of cash incentives, the government’s steps seek to project millets as a mainstream grain. “Millets were eaten by large sections of our society, because they were cheap. But, this gave them a bad name for being a ‘cheaper’ food — and cheap means non-aspirational,” says Kurush F. Dalal, an academician and food anthropologist. Dalal explains that the rise of a “tremendous amount of discrimination” against the millet grains rose in the aftermath of the Green Revolution in the 1970s, when in order to incentivise food production and prevent a nationwide food shortage, the Centre introduced ‘minimum support price’ (MSP) to guarantee a certain amount of income for farmers.

While rice and wheat fell under the MSP ambit, millets were sidelined, and thus was no longer financially viable for farmers. “I hope the government’s incentives reach the grassroots levels, because millet cultivation is still declining every year, at least in Uttarakhand. It will be an incentive for small farmers to grow millets again. But, that incentive needs to be competitive with other commercially successful crops, and an MSP model similar to rice and wheat could be a good place to start,” says Anand Sankar, founder of Tons Valley Shop, in Uttarakhand.

Sankar, who supports small farmers in a remote Uttarakhand valley through his non-charitable fund Kalap, says that farmers have been clamouring to have government bodies include millets in their food procurement plan — which could offer “an immediate boost” to the market of millets.

Others add that alongside no regulation of prices or availability of financial incentives, technological challenges also remain. Devi, founder of sustainable foods startup Biobasics, says that mass production of millets “require good quality processing facilities locally, so that small collectives can grow and process the grain, and find markets to sell.”
Devi’s venture is one among a growing crop of startups marketing millets to an urban and increasingly diverse set of consumers. However, this process presently faces a key challenge in processing — a factor that the government’s Budget 2023 move to promote IIMR as a CoE may help resolve.

The market itself, interestingly, is growing both in demand from restaurants and among consumers.

Vanshika Bhatia, owner of Saucy Spirits Hospitality, runs Gurgaon-based sustainability-centric food venture, Omo Cafe. As she says, small-scale farmers are “readily supplying millets right now, in whichever quantity is required.”
“The farmers are very happily supplying, since growing millets is good for the soil, requires minimal water resources, and little to no chemical intervention,” she says. This offers proof and heart that a robust supply chain that rivals rice and wheat for scale can be built — as long as the right financial, technological and logistical incentives and support are offered.

In a better diet plan, adding millets and dropping wheat and rice can, to some extent, be a healthier alternative. (Pic source: Pixabay)

Bhatia added that consumers, too, are slowly becoming aware about health benefits. This corresponds with the rise of millets as ‘superfoods’, or grains with exceptionally high nutritional value, particularly in urban markets. While this may or may not be actually true, this comes at the right time of marketing millets as the grain of the year.
“Millets being ‘superfoods’ is both true and untrue,” says Dalal. “Pound for pound, the amount of calories from millets is the same as rice. The difference is that millets have a low glycemic index. This makes it great for those with diabetes, and India has a huge population of people who suffer from diabetes. In a better diet plan, adding millets and dropping wheat and rice can, to some extent, be a healthier alternative. It has a little more protein than other grains, and with millets, you don’t get a similar sugar rush as you do with white rice,” he added.

The government’s push to mark 2023 as an International Year of the Millet — a move backed by over 70 nations at the United Nations — could prove to be a seminal moment. Experts, however, state that it is not just about finding the right marketing notes for promoting millets — it is also about survival in the next decades to come. Dalal says, “The rate of growth of food production in India is going down. With that, our population and consumption are going up much faster. Somewhere around 2035, about 12 years from now, these two graphs are postulated to meet. If that happens, researchers warn that this could raise the alarm of food riots in our country by 2050. The only way to stop this is with millets.”

Vernika Awal is a food and lifestyle journalist based of Delhi