Lack of initiatives, promotion of wheat, rice reduced millets crop cultivation area: Niti Aayog report

The government think tank NITI Aayog released a report on April 26 titled Promoting Millets in Diets: Best Practices across States, UTs of India.

“The area under cultivation of various millets in India has been declining and the underlying reasons behind it could be attributed to the promotion of rice and wheat vis-a-vis millet production and lack of suitable initiatives towards millets,” a Niti Aayog report said.

The government think tank NITI Aayog released a report on April 26 titled Promoting Millets in Diets: Best Practices across States, UTs of India. Millets which were once an integral part of the Indian diet have been almost forgotten due to various demand and supply challenges.

India produces all the nine commonly known traditional millets viz. Sorghum, Pearl Millet, Finger Millet, Foxtail Millet, Proso Millet, Little Millet, Barnyard Millet, Brown top Millet and Kodo Millet. Millets are also the most secure crops for small farmers as they are resilient and climate-adaptable in both hot and drought environments.

Millets are nutritionally superior to other food grains owing to their higher protein levels and a more balanced amino acid profile. Millets also contain various phytochemicals which exert therapeutic properties owing to their anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties.

"The reasons for the decline can be attributed to the promotion of rice and wheat vis-a-vis millet production and lack of suitable initiatives towards millets..." the Niti Aayog report stated.

"Despite the benefits of growing millets, over the years, Indian farmers have made a slow but steady shift in their cereal growing preferences away from millets," it further stated." The total area of cropland harvesting the three major millet crops i.e. jowar, bajra and ragi grown in India has almost halved across the country since 1966," it said, adding thousands of hectares of land under millet production have shifted to other crops.

The Niti Aayog in its report also put out area, production, and crop yield data for some of the major millets during the 2010-11 to 2020-21 period. Data showed the area under cultivation (or acreage) for finger millet (ragi), small millets, pearl millet (Bajra), and Sorghum (Jowar) combined, declined from 19,055 hectares in 2010-11 to 13,633 hectares, with a decline of 3% CAGR. Their production declined from 19,996 tonnes to 18,020 tonnes per cent CAGR. However, yield per hectare rose more than 2% to 1,322 kg.