Traditionally yours

Millets are a good source of nutrients, but their hybrid varieties may not be as potent as the traditional ones

- VIBHA VARSHNEY

THE YEAR 2023 is declared as the International Year of Millets, based on a proposal that India put forward at the UN. Being the largest producer of millets globally, the country stands to benefit from the push for the cereal crops, which in recent years have regained the attention lost to wheat and paddy since the Green Revolution in the 1960s.

During the year, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare will lead efforts to ensure increased production and productivity, consumption, export of and awareness about millets.

India also celebrated its own Year of Millets in 2018 and dubbed the crops as "nutri-cereals", owing to their high nutrition profile. The country has been providing incentives to farmers for production of millets since 2018-19, according to Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar's response to a Lok Sabha query, dated February 7, 2023. Tomar's statement also mentions that the measures to promote the nutri-cereals include "production and distribution of certified seeds of newly released varieties/hybrids".

The use of hybrid crops majorly began after the start of the Green Revolution, which aimed to achieve food security through increased crop production, particularly wheat and rice. Over the years, there have been initiatives to develop high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties of millets as well, such as the Project on Intensified Research on Cotton, Oilseeds and Millets established in 1958; the All India Coordinated Millet Improvement Project, 1965; and various similar projects for specific millets.