NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Agriculture Narendra Tomar will host a millet food festival and lunch at the Parliament on Tuesday to celebrate the International Year of Millets, 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to attend the event.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at its 75th session in March 2021 declared 2023 the International Year of Millets. Spearheaded by PM Modi, the Government of India sponsored the proposal for the International Year of Millets 2023, which was accepted by the UNGA.
The government of India has also included millet as a nutritious cereal under the National Food Security Mission which is being implemented across 212 districts of 14 states in the country. Sources said that special chefs have been hired from Karnataka to prepare millet-made specialities like idli and ragi dosa. “There is a menu to make Rotis (bread) out of ragi and jawar promoting eating culture besides adding rotas of bajara and khichdi and kheer,” a source said.
The most widely cultivated millets are ‘sorghum’ and ‘pearl millet’ which are important crops in India and some parts of Africa. It is said that millets are being consumed as nutritious food by human beings for about 7,000 years.
Now, millet has been grown into many species and details about millet nutritious values are also mentioned in the Yajurveda texts as “proyangu, anu and syamaka”. As per an official data, India cultivates on average 12.5 million tonnes of millets followed by Niger with 3.5 million toones, china with 2.3 million tonnes and other countries.
In 2020, global production of millet was about 30.5 million tonnes, led by India with 41% of the world's total production. It carries 72.8 gram of carbohydrates, 8.5-gram dierty fiber and 4.4 g fat besides various minerals and vitamins. It has also 8 mg calcium and 114 mg magnesium with 285 mg phosphorous also.