Magic with Millet: Towards enhancing India’s Food security

http://farmersforum.in/policy/magic-with-millet-towards-enhancing-indias-food-security/

The National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) have provided a major shift in alleviating poverty strategy. Nevertheless, the poverty status of the country is alarming. Even with the growth rate at 8.5 per cent, poverty and consequent malnutrition makes for 37 per cent (some data states 41.0 per cent) of Indians living below the poverty level. A staggering 43.5 per cent of Indian children under five remain malnourished.  Higher agricultural growth with sufficient food production can undoubtedly be useful in combating poverty and malnutrition. To implement the NFSA, the country needs is to expand its allegedly leaky public distribution system (PDS). There have been pre-Budget suggestions for Conditional Cash Transfer (CCF) and food coupon system but there is little media focus on the neglected but highly potential bio-resource of coarse grains or millets in India.

India has a rich resource base both in terms of farmers’ varieties and laboratory produced cultivators of millets in India. While, admittedly it may not be much of a panacea in the Indo-Gangetic plains, millions of poor Indians in the hostile arid and semi-arid zones of India would stand to benefit. The Constitution invests every Indian with the Right to Life, irrespective of cast, creed, religion and geographical locations. Proper management of coarse grains resource can ensure that such right along with other supplementing measure is actually being ensured. This is easier said than done because India with a population of 1.21 billion in 2.4 per cent of global space is besieged with problems related to management of natural resources with which the country is richly endowed.

With eight per cent of the global biodiversity, India has a rich genetic resource base that, if appropriately managed and used, could be a great asset. The agro-biodiversity in India offers enormous opportunity to adopt a strategy for ensuring food security for one of the fastest growing human population. Regrettably, an analysis of post-Independence agricultural policy, including the PDS, proves that the momentous strategy adopted during the era of Green Revolution and beyond had failed to respect India’s agro-bio-resources: one such area of utter neglect is millets.

Millets are grown in arid, semi-arid or rather marginal conditions of soil fertility and moisture. Nevertheless, they are considered as rain fed crops and could be of great help to large localised population as staples or even reserve crops in marginal areas. They are a proven source of energy and protein for millions of human population, additionally providing fodder for cattle population. Unfortunately, a steady decline in millet growing areas in the post Green Revolution period, without any intervention of the authorities, has led to it almost disappearing from the food list.

Millets have a short growing season, a low moisture demand and can play a significant role in a mixed cropped system. Characteristic ecosystems and climatic condition conducive for growth of three major groups is given below (Table 1). Adapting to both irrigated and dry land farming, millets can be a rich source of food and fodder in the years of scarcity and serve as “suitable candidate for famine reserve food.” It is stated that adaptation of simple agronomic practices with timely sowing, right varieties, manuring and weeding and mixed cropping could even more raise the yield by 200 per cent or even 300 per cent (Ghosal & Krishna, 1995). Because of localised production, largely in backward areas, millets did never play the role of major community in the market. The geography and history of Millet has been dealt by Krishnaswamy (1938) focusing the role of Africa and India as its homeland. Incidentally, India still acts as the major producer of millets in today’s world.

Types of millets and their varietal diversity

Millet crops belong to eight major genera of plants in India, namely, Eleusine, Coix, Sorghum, Pennisetum, Setaria, Panicum, Paspalum and Echinochola but are more easily recognisable by their popular names.

The diversity of varieties provides an assemblage of genetic characters and opportunities to be used in the desired condition of stress. Seven varieties of Finger millets are known in Karnataka alone, which are drought and pest resistant. Another five varieties are known from Garhwal Himalaya, which provide higher productivity with variable duration for cultivation days ranging from 130-150. Likewise, Sorghum is known to have five varieties in Andhra Pradesh, in the same state at best four varieties of Finger millet are also known to exist. Varietal diversity is also recorded for Foxtail millet in Garhwal Himalaya, each with 150 days duration.

Unfortunately, deprived of positive policy support and emphasis on rice and wheat, there has been a decline in the number of extant varieties as well as areas under millet cultivation. Farmers in Andhra Pradesh, a Deccan Development Society Survey reveals, believe that hybrid seed of rice and wheat has led to fast decline in the traditional millet cultivation. Changed food habit of the young generation and dearth of organic manure like cow dung are believed to be the other contributing factor. It is interesting to note that in the National Conference on Agro biodiversity (February, 2006) held in Chennai under the aegis of National Biodiversity Authority not a single paper focused on millet.

Semi arid and arid zone

The arid and semi arid zones of India are recorded as 0.31 million sq. km spread over Rajasthan (61 per cent), Haryana and part of Punjab (nine per cent), Gujarat (19.6 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (10.4 per cent). Extremes of temperature, severe and frequent drought, low relative humidity and high wind velocity characterise the arid and semi arid zone. The region has undergone changes in the area where canal irrigation has been introduced but, otherwise, remains under ecological stress. The area under millet in comparison to rice and wheat can be seen in Table 4.

It is believed that millets can offer the most assured food security in the zone. Table 5 provides a comparative analysis of nutrient content available in rice, wheat and millets.

Conservation and management

The apathy of the Ministry of Agriculture has been well evidenced but the increasing awareness in the Civil Society Organisations has led to some welcome change. Of these, the setting up of millet in India Network spread over 17 states in perhaps the most welcome. In February 2010, MINI focused on the urgent need to create space for India’s millet-based agriculture in the 12th Financial Plan (2010-11), as a part of celebrating the Year of Biodiversity, when strong support was rendered by 153 members of CBOs, 53 Scientists, 26 Physicians and Nutrition Experts, 22 Members of the Parliament, 16 Presidents of Panchayats.[1]It may be noted that even without proven support, India contributes 33 per cent of total millet production, others being China and eight countries from Africa. Out of 31,875,547 tonnes production, India’s contribution stands at 10,610,109 tonnes but there is scope to produce much more.

It is interesting to note that 17 kharif hybrids and 15 rabi hybrids of Sorghum have been released of which seven were released at the national level. Again, at least 24 hybrids and varieties of Pearl millets are found suitable for India. Similar efforts can be seen in the development of 28 varieties of ‘Ragi’, 12 varieties of Foxtail millets, nine varieties of Kodo millets, five varieties of Proso millets, nine varieties of little millets and six varieties of Barnyard millets have been released, each with different attribute between 1986-2003 (Elangovan et. al., 2009). The question is: How much of such an impressive array of potential wealth has really been used to ensure food security and poverty alleviation. This is in spite of the money being spent on All India Coordinated Research Projects on Pearl Millets and Small Millets.

Noting steady decline in coarse cereal production, a centrally-sponsored scheme, called “Integrated Cereal Development Programme in Coarse Cereal based Cropping Systems Areas (ICDP-Coarse Cereal) has now been launched. It is expected to include frontline demonstration, assistance to farmers for improved package of practices, supply of quality seeds and resource conservation technologies. Currently, 25 millet manufactures and suppliers are known to be operative. MINI is urging the government to promote millet cultivation and provide an incentive of Rs 5,000 per acre for cultivating millets. Since millets are grown in an area of maximum 20 million acres in India, the incentive percentage will not exceed Rs 1,000 crore; compare this with fertiliser subsidy of Rs 1,40,000 crore provided by government in 2010.[2]

It is of interest that India, the host country for International Centre for Agriculture Research in the Semi-arid Tropics, has an institute under Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGAIR), ICRISAT. ICRISAT has global mandate on Pearl millet and is working for decades on the development disease resistant, yield increasing cultivars; it has significantly contributed towards combating ‘Downy Mildew’ disease, parasitic witch weeds and insect pests. A molecular map of Pearl millet has also been prepared.

With all its past history of the role it has played for centuries in offering staple food to millions of people in ecologically hostile areas, millet must be accorded the highest priority in terms of denominating it as the major cereal crop along with rice and wheat. Making millet available through proper marketing and making it a part of the PDS should also be on top of the agenda. Popularising millet-based food has been something that CSOs had engaged in but it is only serious policy support by the government that can make it a value-added product for India’s food security. Budget 2012-13 should be a good time to make a beginning.

References:

1. (www.milletindia.org/letters/letter_Financeminister_ Feb16_2010.pdf)

2. Times news network, June 24, 2011

Elangovar, m. et.al. 2009 sorghum and millet Genetic resource management. p 21-55 in agrobiodiversity hotspots:access and benefit sharing (ed. s.kannaiyan). narosa publishing house, new delhi, chennai, mumbai, kolkata.

Ghosal, anjali and onkar krishna. 1995. millets of india. navadanya. new delhi.

Gulati, ashok and Ganguly, kaveri 2010 .right to Food: Getting it right. economic times, new delhi; december 4, 2010

krishnaswamy, n. 1937. Geography and history of millets. curr. sci., 7-355