Millets, overshadowed by rice and wheat in the 1960s, are making a cautious return in Indian farms and forks. Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE
Agriculture

Millets: Return of the prodigal crops

After being sidelined by the Centre during the Green Revolution, renewed focus is helping bring millets back to farms and forks

Vikas Choudhary

Millets seem to be making a cautious comeback in India following renewed spotlight and government support. Here, ragi or finger millet fields near Lohardaga in Jharkhand come alive during harvest.

India, along with 72 other countries, had proposed that the United Nations declare 2023 ‘the International Year of Millets’.

It was the Indian government that suggested making 2023 the International Year of Millets in 2023.

The UN agreed to the proposal and 2023 was observed as one that celebrated these ancient crops.

Millets have been around for a long time in the Indian subcontinent. In fact, they date back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. They are considered to have an older presence in India than rice or wheat.

Government support and media coverage mean that there is a renewed interest in millets, among farmers as well as consumers.

But with the Government of India focusing on high-yielding rice and wheat in the Green Revolution of the 1960s, the consumption of millets declined across the country. Till 2021, when the Centre decided to bring the focus back on millets.