{"id":249927,"date":"2023-06-28T20:20:10","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T14:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=249927"},"modified":"2023-08-31T16:13:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T10:43:50","slug":"focus-on-the-millets-value-chain-for-fortified-nutritional-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-millets-value-chain-for-fortified-nutritional-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the millets value chain for fortified nutritional security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cFocus on the millets value chain\u00a0for fortified nutritional security<\/strong>\u201d published<\/strong> in Live Mint <\/strong>on\u00a028th<\/sup> June 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 3 \u2013 Agriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>measures needed to boost millet consumption<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: India is the world\u2019s largest millet producer. India\u2019s Pearl Millet production accounts for 40% of the world\u2019s millet production.<\/p>\n

What are millets and what are its benefits?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Read Here: <\/strong>India’s Wealth: Millet For Health – Explained<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Millets can be grown on less fertile and acidic soils where wheat cannot be produced. Pearl and finger millets can also act as an excellent substitute for rice<\/strong> cultivation on land where there is high soil salinity.<\/p>\n

However, despite its multiple benefits, the area under cultivation of millets has declined over the years.<\/p>\n

What are the reasons behind low production and consumption of millets?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Read Here: <\/strong>Millet Production in India – Explained<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Due to the rapid urbanization<\/strong>, the taste and preferences of consumers changed over time, shifting more towards ready-to-eat food using refined wheat flour.<\/p>\n

As a result, India\u2019s per capita millet consumption fell drastically from 32.9kg to 4.2kg, while wheat almost doubled from 27kg to 52kg, between 1962 and 2010.<\/p>\n

Further, studies have also shown that households in India have lack of knowledge<\/strong> on how to incorporate millets in their diets. Taste is another reason<\/strong> many people resist eating millets.<\/p>\n

What measures have been taken by the government to boost millets consumption?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Indian government named millets as \u2018Shree Anna\u2019 in the Union Budget 2023-24.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government also announced support for the Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad, as a centre of excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level.<\/p>\n

Click Here to Read More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

What more can be done to boost the consumption of millets?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Rather than focusing only on one segment of the millets (spreading health awareness), there is a need to focus on the entire value chain.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This includes improved varieties while assuring millets better shelf lives, efficient processing and access to markets, branding, packaging, awareness programmes, and also collaborations with ready-to-eat brands.<\/p>\n

There is also a need for breakthroughs in productivity to make these crops more competitive and stimulate commercial demand. <\/strong>The efforts taken to boost poultry egg demands in India can also be taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

What lesson can be learnt from the poultry egg industry?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During the 1980s, poultry farmers in India faced a problem of low egg demand due to the country’s predominantly vegetarian culture. <\/strong><\/p>\n

At that time, B.V. Rao (father of the Indian poultry industry)<\/strong> took inspiration from the Amul cooperative model to form a cooperative egg model. Thus, the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) was formed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, the main challenge faced was low demand for poultry eggs. To overcome the challenge, the NECC collaborated with a top advertising agency<\/strong> and developed a creative jingle, \u201cSunday ho ya <\/em>Monday, roz khao ande<\/em>,”<\/strong><\/p>\n

It resonated well with the country\u2019s middle class and per capita consumption of eggs significantly increased over time. Hence, a similar kind of aggressive campaign is needed for millets to boost its demand and consumption in India<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cFocus on the millets value chain\u00a0for fortified nutritional security\u201d published in Live Mint on\u00a028th June 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Agriculture Relevance: measures needed to boost millet consumption News: India is the world\u2019s largest millet producer. India\u2019s Pearl Millet production accounts for 40% of the world\u2019s millet production.… Continue reading Focus on the millets value chain for fortified nutritional security<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[218,216,10501],"class_list":["post-249927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-agriculture","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}