Dietary patterns in India have shifted away from traditional staple food grains, which were largely millets, towards the post-green revolution staples such as wheat and rice. This dietary shift from traditional to ‘modern’ foods is considered to be one of the main reasons for diet-related non-communicable illnesses as well as malnutrition in India. Let’s explore how we can achieve nutrition and food security with a conscious millet rich diet adoption.
It is noteworthy that all socioeconomic groups have exhibited a marked shift in grain consumption from a predominantly millet-based diet to a rice and wheat-based diet, though it is more pronounced in urban areas.
Government policies, specifically in the form of distribution of subsidised rice and wheat through public distribution system (PDS), are primarily responsible for the dietary shift among the rural and urban poor. In populations with higher disposable incomes, millets are often seen as ‘coarse’ grains and are not preferred for daily consumption. The predominance of rice and wheat rather than in processed and convenient foods produced by the industry compounds the problem in this socioeconomic group.
Treasure trove of nutrients
Millets are rich sources of nutrients like carbohydrate, protein, dietary fibre, good quality fat and have substantially higher amounts of minerals like calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc and B complex vitamins making them a preferable choice over the cereal grains. It also contains several bioactive phytochemicals including feraxans, lignans, β-glucan, inulin, resistant starch, sterols and phenolic compounds (e.g. ferulic acid, caffeic acid and quercetin). Studies have supported the role of polyphenols in antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and neuroprotective activities which in all has shown to be beneficial against diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, inflammatory diseases, metabolic syndrome and Parkinson’s disease. Millets are also regarded to have antimicrobial and DNA damage protection activities due to their phytochemical content. A very high proportion of the millet grain comprises dietary fibre and non-starch polysaccharides which help in weight regulation. Due to high fiber content and the slow release of glucose, millets are an excellent choice of food for diabetics.
Scientific evidence also shows eating millets leads to better growth in children. Researchers have found that these ‘smart foods’ can boost growth in children and adolescents by 26-39 per cent when they replace rice in standard meals. Results suggest that millets can significantly contribute to overcoming malnutrition. Among the children (Infants, preschool and school children, adolescents) fed millet-based meals, a relative increase of 28.2 per cent in mean height, 26 per cent in weight, 39 per cent in the mid upper arm circumference and 37 per cent in chest circumference was noted when compared to children on regular rice-based diets. Children studied had consumed millets over 3 months to 4.5 years. These findings provide evidence that nutrition intervention programmes can be developed and adapted to increase diversity in meals using millets, and thus to improve the nutritional content, including in school feeding and mother and child programmes. Millets help meet many of the largest nutrition and health needs. They not only help tackle child undernutrition, but also assist in managing Type 2 Diabetes as well as overcoming iron deficiency anaemia, lowering total cholesterol levels, obesity and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Surge in millet products
After a few decades of not considering millets, the food industry has started recognising the unique nutritional qualities of millets and has been building a sizable product portfolio with millets. Today, there are many products ranging from millet rice to multi grain mixes, instant mixes, breakfast and snack items.
Millet product technologies have been diversified into various Ready to Cook forms such as Vermicelli, Pasta, Instant Dosa, Upma, Kheer mixes, etc. and into various Ready to Eat forms such as Cookies, Muffins, Ready-to-Eat cereals, Flakes, Murukku, Chikki, Extruded Snacks, etc.
Consumer demand also seems to be high. As reported by India’s largest online grocery store, they are offering the 50+ millet-based products and continuously working towards bringing the new alternatives to meet the needs of diverse and wellness seeking consumers.
The big brands such as ITC, Kellogg’s, Britannia, MTR Foods, Big Basket, etc.have already diversified into millet-based products and have been planning for the long term with millets. The industry is very optimistic about meeting the nutritional needs of consumers with millets in the coming days and has been laying plans to develop numerous commercially viable products. However, millet foods are still only a niche market.
The fast-changing millets landscape through huge realisation regarding nutritional benefits of millets along with consumer awareness about the traditional millets has been opening up the opportunities in the food sector. This has manifested as 400 plus millet-based startups in the last five years. The investments in the millets landscape have been estimated to be above Rs 2000 crore and the coming days are likely to see an exponential rise in market size.
After sensing the wave of resonating awareness about millets, many giant private players realised the roadblocks existing in the present supply chain. Millets value chain being unexplored and unexploited, there is lack of suitable varieties, farming practices, proper technologies, standards and guidelines for procurement and handling of millets. This resulted in a struggling backend for food processors and hindering the traction for innovation and replication for reaching the bigger segment of consumers.
Encouraging private players
For private players to scale up the millet’s category from niche to mainstream category, the challenges with the government regulations for procurement need to be refined to meet the reality, and help processors to comply with and aggressively leverage them for high product flow. Especially the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to collaborate with the concerned organisations for keeping the standards and guidelines for nutritional, shelf life, foreign contamination, etc in place.
These Supply – Demand changes have placed the millet prices high and have limited their accessibility too. The best and proven way to bring down the prices and make them accessible food sources is to increase the production backed by increasing demand. Hence policy intervention is key for millet production and consumption to increase and thus to rebuild the nutritional security for the population.
As rightly pointed out by the industry experts, the two major threads of the demand for millets are weak. One is consumer demand that has declined over decades because of the availability of other grains at cheaper prices, incentivised grains through public distribution, changes in taste preferences, inconvenience in cooking the millets, non-availability of millet-based products in the market, technological stagnation, lack of consumer awareness on nutrition benefits of millets, etc.
The second factor is the lack of demand for industrial application. The efforts for exploring and developing the industrial use for millets will increase the demand and will result in the increased production which is the essential recipe for both bringing down the prices as well as making the millets a remunerative crop.
Initiatives of state governments
It’s encouraging to see that the Government of India and various states like Karnataka and Odisha have led the cause to improve consumption of millets and make it a popular food choice. The state of Madhya Pradesh is promoting locally grown millets and its inclusion as part of supplementary nutrition programme (SNP).
The Government of India had launched the National Millet Mission in 2018 and celebrated that year as the ‘National Year of Millets’. With 2023 notified as the International Year of Millets by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the country needs to be ready with integration of backward and supply chain, sufficient production, strong value chain, diverse range of value-added product technologies, USPs in place, consumer awareness and communication, clear standards and guidelines, policy support, incubation, branding, etc. for tapping the export market potential and passing the heritage of India to the world community as future cereal foods that are on trend with nutritional benefits and offer functional health benefits.
Dr Sujeet Ranjan, Public Health Nutritionist and Dr Raj Bhandari, Member, National Nutrition Board, GoI