{"id":34516,"date":"2022-11-26T11:04:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T05:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34516"},"modified":"2025-04-20T14:33:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T09:03:31","slug":"why-indias-push-for-millets-is-yet-to-gain-widespread-traction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/why-indias-push-for-millets-is-yet-to-gain-widespread-traction\/","title":{"rendered":"Why India\u2019s push for millets is yet to gain widespread traction"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Millets \u2013 about, historical background, millets around the world, significance<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Millets in India \u2013 Production, millets under PDS, steps taken by the govt<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why In News:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A pre-launch celebration of International Year of Millets was held recently in New Delhi.<\/li>\n<li>It was organised by the Ministries of Agriculture and External Affairs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Millets<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The word \u201cmillets\u201d is used to describe small-grained cereals like sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), foxtail millet (kangni\/ Italian millet), little millet (kutki), etc.<\/li>\n<li>They require much less water than rice and wheat, and are mainly grown in rainfed areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Historical background:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets were among the first crops to be domesticated.<\/li>\n<li>There is evidence for consumption of millets by the Indus valley people (3,000 BC), and several varieties that are now grown around the world were first cultivated in India.<\/li>\n<li>West Africa, China, and Japan are home to indigenous varieties of the crop.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Millets around the world<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Globally, sorghum (jowar) is the biggest millet crop.<\/li>\n<li>The major producers of jowar are United States, China, Australia, India, Argentina, Nigeria, and Sudan.<\/li>\n<li>Bajra is another major millet crop; India and some African countries are major producers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Significance<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Food security<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets are a\u00a0<u>climate-friendly crop<\/u>\u00a0that can even be grown in drought-hit areas.<\/li>\n<li>COVID was a period that reminded the world what a pandemic could do to food security. Hence, experts are highlighting the importance of millets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>High nutritive value<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets are considered to be powerhouses of nutrition. In April 2018, the Agriculture Ministry declared certain millets as Nutri Cereals for the purposes of production, consumption, and trade\n<ul>\n<li>These include:\n<ul>\n<li>Jowar, bajra, ragi\/ mandua,<\/li>\n<li>the minor millets \u2014 kangani\/ kakun, cheena, kodo, sawa\/ sanwa\/ jhangora, and kutki<\/li>\n<li>the two pseudo millets, buckwheat (kuttu) and amaranth (chaulai).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Millets are more nutritious compared to fine cereals. Millets contain 7-12% protein, 2-5% fat, 65-75% carbohydrates and 15-20% dietary fibre.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Political significance<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Millet is grown mainly in low-income and developing countries in Asia and Africa, and are part of the food basket of about 60 crore people across the globe.<\/li>\n<li>By proposing the resolution to celebrate 2023 as the International Year of Millets, India pitched itself as a leader of this group.<\/li>\n<li>This is similar to the Indian initiative on the 121-nation International Solar Alliance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Health benefits<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets reduce Anemia, liver disorders, and Asthma.<\/li>\n<li>Their high dietary fiber provides hunger satisfaction and helps reduce obesity and the risk of Type II Diabetes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Millets in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Production<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2022\/11\/26\/12\/41\/59\/6381bc3fdc872c05c56560c5_OI.PNG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As per the data of Agriculture Ministry, in India, millets are mainly a kharif crop.<\/li>\n<li>During 2018-19, three millet crops \u2014 bajra (3.67%), jowar (2.13%), and ragi (0.48%) \u2014 accounted for about 7 per cent of the gross cropped area in the country.<\/li>\n<li>Jowar is mainly grown in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Madhya Pradesh.\n<ul>\n<li>Maharashtra accounted for the largest area and production of jowar during 2020-21.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bajra is mainly grown in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.\n<ul>\n<li>Rajasthan accounted to the largest area and production of Bajra during 2020-21.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Millets under PDS<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, eligible households are entitled to get rice, wheat, and coarse grain at Rs 3, Rs 2, and Re 1 per kg respectively.<\/li>\n<li>While the Act does not mention millets, coarse grains are included in the definition of \u201cfoodgrains\u201d under Section 2(5) of the NFSA.<\/li>\n<li>However, the quantity of coarse grains procured for the Central Pool and distributed under the NFSA has been negligible.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Steps taken by the govt.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The push to distribute coarse grains under the PDS has not gained momentum.<\/li>\n<li><u>The Centre has accepted the recommendation of a committee set up by it<\/u>, that millets be included in the PDS in order to improve nutritional support.<\/li>\n<li>The government has set a target to procure 13.72 LMT coarse grains during the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2022-23, more than double the 6.30 LMT procured during KMS 2021-22.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Year of Millets<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>In March, 2021, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets.<\/li>\n<li>The proposal was moved by India, and was supported by 72 countries.<\/li>\n<li>The International Year of Millets will raise awareness about the importance of millets in food security and nutrition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The word \u201cmillets\u201d is used to describe small-grained cereals like sorghum (jowar), pearl millet , etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}