DDS Presentation during the North East Consultation on 'Millets' - 24th and 25th March 2010

1. WONDER WORLD
OF
MILLETS

2. India Leads Global
Millet Consumption

3. India tops global list
Country 5Year Average
• India 9,041,765
• Nigeria 4,299,211
• Niger 1,733,793
• China 1,116,505
• Burkina Faso 856,337
• Mali 701,701
• Russian Federation 280,941

4. Wonder world of Millets
• Capacity to
flourish under
low rainfall
• Harsh soils
• Low or no
external inputs
• God’s own
crops

5. Wonder world of Millets
• Offer superior
food
• Fodder and
livelihood
• Multiple Security
• High Health
• High Nutrition

6. Foods of Future
• Currently 44% of total foodgrains
• 75% pulses; 90% sorghum, millets
• Add cultivation in another 25
million Ha
• Nearly 60% of Indian production
from millet fields
• Fill gaps left by wheat and rice

7. Offer Fodder Security
• Sorghum, Peal
millet are
excellent fodder
• Grow upto 3 mt
• Fresh or dried,
support 5 heads
of livestock/ha
• All other millets
are also fodder

8. Health & Nutritional
Security
• Storehouses of
Nutrition
• Both major
nutrients and
micronutrients
• Can prevent India
from being
Diabetic Capital
of the world

9. Storehouses of Nutrition
Protein Fiber Minerals Iron Calcium
Crop/Nutrituent (g) (g) (g) (mg) (mg)
Pearl millet 10.6 1.3 2.3 16.9 38
Finger millet 7.3 3.6 2.7 3.9 344
Foxtail millet 12.3 8 3.3 2.8 31
Proso millet 12.5 2.2 1.9 0.8 14
Kodo millet 8.3 9 2.6 0.5 27
Little millet 7.7 7.6 1.5 9.3 17
Barnyard millet 11.2 10.1 15.2 11
Rice 6.8 0.2 0.6 0.7 10
Wheat 11.8 1.2 1.5 5.3 41

10. Protn Fibr Min Iron Cal
CROP (g) (g) (g) (mg) (mg)
Pearl millet
[SAJJA] 10.6 1.3 2.3 16.9 38
Finger millet
[RAGI] 7.3 3.6 2.7 3.9 344
Foxtail millet
[KORRA] 12.3 8 3.3 2.8 31
Little millet 7.7 7.6 1.5 9.3 17
Rice 6.8 0.2 0.6 0.7 10
Wheat 11.8 1.2 1.5 5.3 41

11. Livelihood Security
• Every hectare
of millet field
supports 100pd
livelihoods
• Together more
than 100 mln
people live on
millet based
livelihoods

12. Ecological Security
• Grown in
traditional
fashion, millets
fields are
ecological fields
• No chemical
fertilisers,
pesticides
• Huge biodiversity

13. Wonder world of Millets
• Biodiverse
environment
• Cereals, pulses,
oilseeds
• Baranaja,
• Saat Dhan,
• Pannendu
Panta

14. Wonder world of Millets
• Uncultivated
foods
• Food variety
• Fodder variety
• Self regenerating
soils
• Carbon fixation –
climate change

15. Marginalising Millets
• Name it Coarse
Cereal not
Nutricereal
• No millet based
PDS
• Large
fallowisation

16. Marginalising Millets
• 35% shrinkage
in millet area
• 4 m Ha fallowed
• Cheap PDS has
demolished millet
food culture
• Plates of the poor
to elite tables

17. Recapturing Millets
• Crop of Food
Sovereignty
• Concept, not
crop
• New millet PDS
• Control by the
marginalised
• MINI

18. Enabling people to
seize the moment
• Creating enabling conditions
• Move away from the Rice-Wheat
dependcy?
• Resist organic monocultures?
• Challenge the castles of dominant
paradigm of agricultural research?
• No hybrid, GE led organic

19. The Millet Moment
• Handing millets the food destiny of
India
• Shaping the new food politics
• Redesigning the farming
landscape
• Rainfed India leading the farming
renaissance

20. DEMANDS FOR MILLETS
• High priority in the National
Food Security Act
• Put millets into public food
systems
• Recognise millets as Climate
Change Compliant Crops and
promote their cultivation and
consumption

21. MILLETS
Future of
Food and Farming

22. Climate Compliant Crops
• High Heat, low rainfall
• Drought conditions
• High malnutrition
• Millets as answers to all these
challenges
• Wheat & rice may disappear

23. Heat & The Millet
• Sorghum and high heat
• Bajra and high heat
• Drought tolerance capabilities
• Natural C4 crops
• Thermally sensitive wheat
• GHG producing paddy rice

24. Water guzzlers vs
water conservers
Comparision of Water Requirement of Different Crops
(in mm) Pulses
2500 Bajra (Pearl millet)
2100
Ragi (Finger millet)
2000
Jowar (Sorghum millet)
1500
1250 Groundnut
1000 Maize
600
400 450 500 Cotton
500 300 350 350
Rice
0 Sugarcane
Water requirement (mm)

25. Price Water Couper
• One kg of paddy needs 3-4000
litres of water
• If priced for water, will cost Rs.40
per kg @ one paise/litre; rice:
Rs.70
• Every acre of paddy uses up 6 mln
litres of water
• Imagine the savings by millets

26. Rain Uncertain
• Traditional millet farming systems,
diversity
• Early rain, normal rain, delayed
rain, low rain, heavy rain: a
solution for every rain
• Non irrigated environments
• Uniform experience all across India

27. Protein Fibr Min Iron Cal
CROP (g) (g) (g) (mg) (mg)
Pearl millet
[SAJJA] 10.6 1.3 2.3 16.9 38
Finger millet
[RAGI] 7.3 3.6 2.7 3.9 344
Foxtail millet
[KORRA] 12.3 8 3.3 2.8 31
Little millet 7.7 7.6 1.5 9.3 17
Rice 6.8 0.2 0.6 0.7 10
Wheat 11.8 1.2 1.5 5.3 41

28. Carbon Sequesters
• Traditional
millet cropping
systems
• Legumes with
sorghum and
millets
• Carbon
sequestering
capacity

29. Honouring Millets
* ANNOUNCE
• Biodiversity bonus
• Water conservation bonus
• Climate change bonus
• Rs.5000/Ha for minor millets
• Rs.2000/Ha for major millets
• Peanuts in front of 140000 cr
subsidy on chemical fertilisers

30. People - Climate
• Food, nutrition and health
Sovereign communities
• Dryland communities where most
poor and marginalised live
• Non irrigated rainfed crops
• Create multiple securities
• Honour and build communities of
the poor and the marginalised

31. Millets for North East
• Konidhan; Dr
Chaudhry
• Mapping Millet
Diversity
• Value addition to
existing dietary
practices
• Climate change
and adaptability

32. Millets for North East
• Nostalgia in
Nagaland
• Shifting
Cultivation and
Diversity
• Farmers
recollection of
millet varieties
in their diet

33. WE HAVE
THE POWER
TO HEAL
THE PLANET