{"id":67126,"date":"2020-10-23T18:00:50","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T12:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=67126"},"modified":"2020-10-23T18:00:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T12:30:50","slug":"importance-of-nutri-cereals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/importance-of-nutri-cereals\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of Nutri-cereals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What are Millets and its benefits?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Millet is a common term to categorize small-seeded grasses that are often termed nutri-cereals or dryland-cereals. It includes jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and ragi (finger millet), small millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet and other millets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Benefits of millets-<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Nutrition-<\/strong> High in dietary fibre, nutri-cereals are a powerhouse of nutrients including iron, folate, calcium, zinc, magnesium, phosphorous, copper, vitamins and antioxidants.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Millets can provide nutritional security and act as a shield against nutritional deficiency, especially among children and women.<\/li>\n<li>Reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes in adults.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><strong>Photo-insensitive &amp; resilient to climate change<\/strong>&#8211; millets are hardy, resilient crops that have a low carbon and water footprint, can withstand high temperatures and grow on poor soils with little or no external inputs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Adapted to low or no purchased inputs and to harsh environment\u00a0of the semi-arid tropics, they are the backbone for dry land agriculture.<\/li>\n<li>These unique features make millets suited for and resilient to India\u2019s varied agro-climatic conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What are the reasons for decline in the production of millets?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Green revolution-<\/strong> The focus was on food security and high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. An unintended consequence of this policy was the gradual decline in the production of millets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Change in consumer demand<\/strong>&#8211; Due to change in consumption pattern, dietary habits, unavailability of millets, low yield, less demand and\u00a0conversion of irrigated area for cultivation of rice and wheat.4<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>What are steps taken to address this situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To address this situation, a multi-pronged strategy has been adopted for the promotion of nutri-cereals by the current government-<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Rebranding<\/strong>&#8211; In order to promote \u2018millets\u2019, India had on its part notified these climate resilient crops as Nutri-Cereals.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increment in MSP<\/strong>&#8211; The government hiked the MSP of nutri-cereals so that more and more farmers may opt for cultivation of these less water consuming crops.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>MSPs have been calculated so that the farmer is ensured at least a 50 per cent return on their cost of production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><strong>Marketplace<\/strong>&#8211; To provide a steady market for the produce, the government included millets in the public distribution system for improving nutritional support.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Farmer friendly schemes<\/strong>&#8211; the Ministry of Agriculture &amp; Farmers\u2019 Welfare is running a Rs 600-crore scheme to increase the area, production and yield of nutri-cereals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>With a goal to match the cultivation of nutri-cereals with local topography and natural resources.<\/li>\n<li>The government is encouraging farmers to align their local cropping patterns to India\u2019s diverse 127 agro-climatic zones.<\/li>\n<li>Provision of seed kits and inputs to farmers, building value chains FPO and supporting the marketability of nutri-cereals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li><strong>Generate demand<\/strong>&#8211; The Ministry of Women and Child Development has been working at the intersection of agriculture and nutrition by setting up nutri-gardens, promoting research on the interlinkages between crop diversity and dietary diversity and running a behaviour change campaign to generate consumer demand for nutri-cereals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Way forward- <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The multi-ministerial policy framework is a strategic move towards building an Atmanirbhar Bharat which resonates with the global call for self-sufficiency and sustainable development.<\/li>\n<li>People should take small steps towards choosing healthier foods, which are good for the environment and bring economic prosperity to farmers.<\/li>\n<li>Partially processed millet products can be made available in the market to promote its consumption and thus, create a demand for these nutritious grains and simultaneously reduce the reliance on staples like rice and wheat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are Millets and its benefits? Millet is a common term to categorize small-seeded grasses that are often termed nutri-cereals or dryland-cereals. It includes jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and ragi (finger millet), small millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet and other millets. Benefits of millets- Nutrition- High in dietary fibre, nutri-cereals&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/importance-of-nutri-cereals\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Importance of Nutri-cereals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":145,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67126","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}