How millet cultivation can tackle the challenges of food security issues
The year 2023 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of the Millet, following a proposal by India. The global agrifood systems face multiple challenges to produce food for the ever-growing global population.
In such a scenario, resilient cereals such as millets provide an affordable and nutritious option, and efforts need to be scaled up to promote their cultivation. Millets can play an important role and contribute to the collective efforts to empower smallholder farmers, achieve sustainable development, eliminate hunger, adapt to climate change, promote biodiversity, and transform agri-food systems.
Millets can truly tackle the food security issues worldwide, as they are nutritionally superior to wheat and rice, owing to their higher protein levels and a more balanced amino acid profile. They also contain various phytochemicals which exert therapeutic properties owing to their anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties. Further, millet grains are rich sources of nutrients like carbohydrates, protein, dietary fiber, and good-quality fat; minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc, and B complex vitamins.