Punjab can sow seeds of a millet revolution

With 2023 being celebrated as the UN International Year of Millets, the focus is once again back on rediscovering the magic of these wonder grains. By the time the year comes to a close, I am hoping it will at least manage to remove the mental block we have against coarse cereals, as the millet crops are generally referred to, and, in the bargain, catapult India to effectively addressing the scourge of hidden hunger by tapping into and building nutrient-sensitive and environmentally sustainable local food value chains.

Coarse cereals are not rough and unhealthy grains. They are, in fact, nutritionally-rich and climate-resilient smart crops. Cultivated in the dry and rainfed regions of the country, the millets — nine grains that include bajra, jowar and ragi, besides other small millets — had been deliberately pushed to the margins. Because these super foods did not form a part of the European and American diets, these were generally ignored.

But the rediscovery of millets, especially with the campaign conducted by civil society groups led by the Millets Network of India and others to push these grains in the public distribution system, has now opened up the floodgates for a diversified food and farming system.

A lot has been written about the virtues of the millet crops, including the health and sustainability aspects, and we will hear more on the unleashing of the potential of millets as the year progresses. The focus will remain on raising awareness, and also on aggregation, enhancing production and creating ample processing opportunities. But expanding the area under millets, which means diverting a significant proportion of the area from the water-guzzling paddy crop, will only be possible by making millets an attractive proposition for the farmers.

Now, this is a lot easier said than done. We are aware that earlier efforts at diversifying the cropping pattern haven’t succeeded.

Given that paddy requires between 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water for producing one kg of rice (depending upon the agro-climatic zones) and millets normally require about 200 litres, an effective price that augments the water-saving potential of millets, environmental protection with hardly any application of chemical fertiliser and pesticides and nutritional superiority need to be acknowledged and accounted for. After all, millets can become an alternative to paddy provided their pricing is looked at afresh.

Ascribing economic value to the tremendous environment and nutritional gains that millets bring in, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) should modify the pricing formula by adopting the principles of ecosystem services.

This assumes importance given the low share of farmers in the end consumer price. Providing an assured price that is substantially higher can, therefore, be a win-win situation which benefits farmers as well as the society at large.

That makes me wonder. In addition to a reworked MSP for millets, what can prompt Punjab, a food bowl, to make a transition towards a diversified farming system? After all, undivided Punjab was cultivating more than 11 lakh hectares of bajra in the 1950s, which is now down to a mere 1,000 hectares. This decline is primarily due to the continuing policy emphasis on an intensive wheat-paddy crop rotation.

Shifting back to millets, besides pulses and oilseeds, is arguably the best way forward. Punjab, therefore, has a double advantage by incorporating millets in its crop diversification programme. First, it will lead to setting its own house in order by getting away from the environmentally devastating consequences of the Green Revolution. And second, it will trigger a huge demand for millets that can be replicated elsewhere.

Picking up from Andhra Pradesh where a collective of 11 religious places, under the banner of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), has in a tripartite agreement with the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), the Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS) and the AP Markfed resolved to provide over 15,000 tonnes of 12 farm commodities, all naturally farmed. Under the agreement, farmers are being paid a price that is 10 per cent higher than the MSP, and if the market price is higher, they get 15 per cent more.

Karnataka had earlier given a higher price — 40 per cent more than the MSP — to encourage ragi cultivation.

Considering that Punjab has thousands of gurdwaras, a much bigger demand for millets (and organic produce) can be generated if religious bodies like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) can be roped in to shift to organic langar, including millets in the menu. In fact, even for parshad, millet halwa and millet kheer are better alternatives.

Punjab’s Markfed can be entrusted with the responsibility of creating adequate storage facilities and ensuring timely supplies. Similarly, non-profits like the Kheti Virasat Mission and others can be tasked with building organic farming clusters. The backward linkages to mark organic clusters, source the produce and ensure quality can be easily worked out.

Add to it the demand from schools. There are nearly 30 lakh students enrolled in government schools in Punjab. If millets could be incorporated in their mid-day meal programme once a week to begin with, the huge demand that is created will necessitate local supplies. A programme to source millets from Punjab’s farmers can be easily built on the TTD model that AP has created. For instance, in the union territory of Chandigarh alone, which has more than 110 government schools, it is becoming difficult to source millets to meet the once-in-a-week millet menu. If that is the situation in Chandigarh, Punjab can definitely draw up an imaginative farm-to-fork supply chain to match the increased demand that is expected from the mid-day meal scheme as well as from the gurdwaras.

At the national level, with 120 million students in 1.27 million schools, introducing millets in the mid-day meal could be one of the biggest programmes towards encouraging farmers to take to the cultivation of millets in a big way.

Schools, hospitals and shrines can be the motivating factors in encouraging millets’ cultivation and bringing millets back on our plate. Let Punjab sow the seeds of a millet revolution in India.