{"id":14670,"date":"2021-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/05-04-2021\/millet-based-production\/"},"modified":"2021-04-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T00:00:00","slug":"millet-based-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/05-04-2021\/millet-based-production","title":{"rendered":"Millet-Based Production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>India is fast catching up with the western world in millet consumption. Millet-based products are fast gaining acceptance in the West.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Millet <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a common term to categorise <strong>small-seeded grasses<\/strong> that are often termed <strong>Nutri-cereals or dryland-cereals<\/strong> and includes <strong>sorghum, pearl millet, ragi,<\/strong> <strong>small millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and Kodo millet<\/strong>, among others.<\/li>\n<li>They are also <strong>hardier and drought-resistant crops<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Millets can grow in<strong> poor soil conditions<\/strong> with<strong> less water, fertiliser <\/strong>and <strong>pesticides<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>They can withstand <strong>higher temperatures<\/strong>, making them the perfect choice as <strong>\u2018climate-smart cereals.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Distribution<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>India, Nigeria and China<\/strong> are the <strong>largest producers of millets<\/strong> in the world, accounting for more than<strong> 55% of the global productio<\/strong>n.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0For many years, India was a <strong>major producer of millets.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>However, in recent years, millet production has increased dramatically in Africa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0In India, <strong>pearl millet <\/strong>is the <strong>fourth-most widely cultivated food crop<\/strong> after rice, wheat and maize.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Millets <\/strong>are <strong>available almost across India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets help in <strong>tackling health challenges<\/strong> such as obesity, diabetes and lifestyle problems<strong> <\/strong>as they are gluten-free<strong>,<\/strong> have a low glycemic index and are high in dietary fibre and antioxidants.<\/li>\n<li>Millets are <strong>Nutri-cereals<\/strong> that are <strong>highly nutritious<\/strong> and known to have high nutrient content which includes protein, essential fatty acids, dietary fibre, B-Vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium and magnesium.<\/li>\n<li>It can provide<strong> nutritional security<\/strong> and protect against<strong> <\/strong>nutritional deficiency, especially among children and women.<\/li>\n<li>It will also be critical for<strong> climate change measures<\/strong> in drylands<strong> <\/strong>and important for smallholder and marginal farmers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Concerns \/Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The awareness of the <strong>benefits of millets<\/strong> is <strong>still low<\/strong> and this is the reason for the lesser number of players working<strong> <\/strong>on value-added millet products in India.<\/li>\n<li>The main reasons behind the decline are low remuneration, lack of input subsidies and price incentives, subsidised supply of fine cereals through the public distribution system (PDS) and change in consumer preferences and lower demand\n<ul>\n<li>The lower demand also means limited <strong>supply and higher prices<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>In the absence of proper market linkages for forest and agricultural produce, millet consumption is restricted to rural haats, bazaars, tourist spots and festivals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Government Efforts to Promote Millets Production <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets are being promoted through <strong>technology dissemination<\/strong>, quality seeds through millet seed hubs, awareness generation, minimum support price and inclusion in PDS<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Efforts are now being done to include the <strong>nutrient-rich smaller<\/strong> millets in the <strong>mid-day meal schemes<\/strong> in government and government-aided schools in <strong>Karnataka and Telangana.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Millet awareness<\/strong> is catching up fast in the urban centres such as <strong>Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi <\/strong>among others.<\/li>\n<li>The Union Agriculture Ministry, in April 2018, declared millets as <strong>\u201cNutri-Cereals\u201d, <\/strong>considering their <strong>\u201chigh nutritive value\u201d<\/strong> and also \u201c<strong>anti-diabetic properties<\/strong>\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0The year 2018 was observed as <strong>the \u2018National Year of Millets<\/strong>\u201d and the UN General Assembly adopted an <strong>India-sponsored resolution<\/strong> to <strong>mark 2023 <\/strong>as the <strong>\u201cInternational Year of Millets\u201d.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Government of India\u2019s Millet Mission comes under the <strong>National Food Security Mission (NFSM)<\/strong>, launched in October 2007.\n<ul>\n<li>The Mission will focus on developing farm-gate processing and empowering farmers through collectives while focusing on <strong>value-addition<\/strong> and <strong>aggregation of the produce<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Way Forward <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There\u2019s a need for developing a decentralised model of processing capabilities so that the <strong>growers stand to benefit<\/strong> at a community level and in the growing regions,<\/li>\n<li>There is a need to promote the <strong>production of more millets by providing price support<\/strong> to farmers as there\u2019s not only a <strong>social dimension<\/strong> but also a <strong>nutritional <\/strong>and <strong>environmental aspect<\/strong> associated with these cereals.<\/li>\n<li>Promoting millets could help governments save<strong> expenditure on health and nutrition.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Dedicated programmes with proper training and capacity-building initiatives that urge farmers to move away from <strong>loss-making crops toward diversification<\/strong> via millets can be a timely method to pull farmers away from the region&#8217;s distress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/Industry\/millet-based-products-set-to-gain-increasing-acceptance\/article34226369.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source : TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News India is fast catching up with the western world in millet consumption. Millet-based products are fast gaining acceptance in the West. Millet It is a common term to categorise small-seeded grasses that are often termed Nutri-cereals or dryland-cereals and includes sorghum, pearl millet, ragi, small millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26,141],"class_list":["post-14670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-gs-3","tag-major-crops-cropping-patterns-of-india"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/3856738current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}