Millets: A way towards food and nutritional security in India

Today, the world grapples with dual challenges: on one hand in the ‘Global South', there is a pressing need to address food insecurity among the poor; on the other hand, in the ‘Global North', diseases stemming from dietary habits and micronutrient deficiencies are emerging as a serious problem. This trend is also seen in India and creates the current nutritional paradox, where problems of undernutrition and hidden hunger (micronutrient malnutrition even in food-secure communities) co-exist. Along with this, the world is experiencing climatic changes in the form of unprecedented increases in extreme weather conditions, water scarcity, overpopulation, and pandemics like COVID-19, and India is not an exception. In this context, it is time to look for alternatives to the popular staples such as rice and wheat, and millets; the most useful, nutritious, climate change-ready crop with enormous potential for yielding higher economic returns in adverse conditions could be one possible alternative. Millets offer an opportunity to enhance sustainable agriculture, transform food systems, tackle challenges of diseases arising from bad food habits, and attain food and nutritional security due to their abundance in various micronutrients. Considering the importance of millets, the current study, entirely based on secondary sources, aims to look into various aspects of millets such as historical evidence of its cultivation; its status in the current scenario; its nutritive value as compared to other popular cereals; government initiatives to promote its cultivation and consumption; its role in addressing food and nutrition security issues and promoting dietary as well as crop diversification and suggest some policy recommendations to promote millets to ensure food and nutritional security in India.