MILLETS: The nutrient rich counterparts of wheat and rice
Millets are one of the oldest foods known to humans. These
are the small-seeded hardy crops belonging to gramineae family
which can grow well in dry zones/rain-fed
areas under marginal conditions of soil
fertility and moisture. Due to their short growing
season, these can develop from seeds to
ready to harvest crops in about 65
days. This highly beneficial characteristic of the millets is of vital
importance in thickly populated regions of the world. If stored properly,
millets can keep well for two years or beyond.
Most of the millets are highly nutritious,
non-glutinous, non-acid forming and easily digestible foods. Being gluten free,
individuals suffering from celiac disease can easily incorporate various
millets in their diets. Millet ingestion helps in a slower release of glucose
over a longer period of time; thus, due to low glycaemic index (GI), their
habitual intake reduces the risk of diabetes mellitus.
Further, millets are rich sources of minerals like
iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. Ragi (Finger millet)
is very rich in calcium; and bajra in iron. These also contain appreciable amounts of dietary
fibre and various vitamins (β- Carotene, niacin, vitamin B6 and
folic acid); high amounts of lecithin are useful for strengthening the nervous
system. Therefore, a regular consumption can help to overcome malnutrition
among majority of our Indian population. These have often been called the coarse
grains; however, due to their nutritional contributions, these are now
being referred as ‘nutria-millets/nutria-cereals’.
Millets are also rich in phytochemicals
(polyphenols, tannins, phytosterols) and antioxidants; however, they do contain
some anti-nutritional factors that can be reduced by certain processing
treatments.
Despite numerous qualities, utilization of millets
as food is confined to the traditional consumers, particularly the tribal
populations. This is mainly due to the non-availability of consumer friendly,
ready-to-use/ready-to-eat millet based products. Recently, millets have gained
attention and efforts are under way to obtain their convenient and value added
processed products.
Although among the food crops, millets occupy
relatively a lower position in Indian agriculture, they are quite important
from the point of food security at regional/household level. Millets can
not only grow in poor soil/climatic conditions, due to their short growing
season, these can very well fit into multiple cropping systems under irrigated
as well as dry land farming; and provide nutritious grain as
well as fodder in a short span. Their prolonged
and easy storability under ordinary conditions has accorded them the status of “famine
reserves”; and this feature is of great relevance for India, as
our agriculture suffers from the vagaries of monsoon.
The millets commonly grown in India include: bajra (pearl
millet), jowar (sorghum), ragi (finger
millet), barri (proso/common millet), jhangora(barnyard
millet), kangni (foxtail/ Italian millet), kodra (kodo
millet) etc.
The fact that the small millets can grow from
coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh to moderately high altitudes (hilly regions
of Uttarakhand and North-Eastern states) is indicative of their wide capacity
for adaptation. These crops can withstand variations in moisture, temperature
and the type of soils ranging from heavy to sandy infertile lands. Therefore,
to ensure food and nutrition security for our masses, it is important to
increase the production of these crops and simultaneously revert the control of
production, distribution and consumption back to the people. Since many
households in dry land/hilly regions depend on millets to meet their food
needs, we need to bring them into the food security basket.
With regard to Global Hunger Index (GHI), India ranks
64 (among the 81 nations); and in child malnutrition, unfortunately it occupies
the second place; both the situations highlighting poor plight of our country.
This is the scenario despite Public Distribution System/ Targeted PDS
(PDS/TPDS) being there for nearly five decades; however, the focus has been
only on wheat/rice distribution while the millets have long been disregarded.
However, it has now been proposed to enlarge the food basket and include
millets like jowar, bajra, ragi etc in the PDS.
“Currently, in the 12th plan, our Government has recognized
the role of millets in the food chain. Under the National Food Security Mission
(NFSM), of the preliminary targets for enhancing food grain production by an
additional 25 MT, the share allocated for millets is 2 MT (8% of the enhanced
food grain production”
Declining State support (in terms of crop
loans/insurance) has led to the poor status accorded to millets in Indian
agriculture which needs to be reversed urgently. There is a dire need for the Indian
policy makers to refocus their attention towards millet farming systems and
enact policies to create enabling environment for the farmers. With respect to
millets production/promotion, some of the existing Government schemes/
projects/programmes include:
-
Initiative for Nutritional
Security through Intensive Millets Promotion (INSIMP) – a part of Rashtriya
Krishi Vikas Yojana” (RKVY) which is the only comprehensive initiative to
support millet production.
-
Rainfed Area Development Programme
(RADP) – a component of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas
Yojana” (RKVY); and
-
Integrated Cereals Development Programmes in
Coarse Cereals based Cropping Systems Areas (ICDP-CC) under Macro Management of
Agriculture (MMA).
India is the largest producer of
many varieties of millets; bajra being the most
widely grown. However, over the last five decades the area under millet
production has been shrinking; and more so ever after the Green Revolution in
1960s. During the last five decades, a sizeable area under millet cultivation
was shifted to other crops; and this has been an extraordinary loss to the
India’s food and farming systems.
Millets can not only grow under harsh
circumstances, these drought resistant crops requiring fewer external
inputs are termed as the ‘miracle grains’ or ‘crops of the future’.
Cultivated as dual-purpose crops (food & fodder), millets contribute to the
economic efficiency of farming and provide food/livelihood security to millions
of households, particularly the small/marginal farmers and the inhabitants of
rain fed/remote tribal regions.
Besides, millets help in reducing the
atmospheric CO2 and thus contribute in mitigating the climate
change. On the contrary, paddy is a major contributor to climate change through
methane emission (the green-house gas emanating from water-drenched rice
fields). Wheat being a thermally sensitive crop, with increasing
temperatures, its production is liable to be adversely affected. Thus, in
due course, wheat might disappear from our farms.
Millet production is not dependent on
the use of chemical fertilizers. These crops do not attract pests; and
majority of the millets are not affected by storage pests; thus, the use of
pesticides is not mandated.
Millets are remarkable in their
nutritive value; being nearly 3-5 times nutritionally superior to rice and
wheat - be it minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre or other nutrients.
Sorghum is an important source of antioxidants, polyphenols and
cholesterol-lowering waxes. Due to their high dietary fibre content coupled
with low glycaemic index, millets can help in curbing overweight/obesity as
well as lowering the risk of hypertension, CVDs, T2DM, cancers as well as in
preventing constipation.
Millets along with rice, wheat and
pulses/oilseeds can be used to produce nutritious food products such as
porridges, chapattis, breads, ladoos, pastas, biscuits,
cookies, cakes, and several fermented foods including probiotic drinks.
After dehulling, millets can be simply cooked like rice and their flour can
substitute rice flour in preparing various snack items. Fermented batters of
millets and black gram (3:1) can be used for making idli, dosa or
uttapam. Ragi and refined wheat flour blends (1:2) can be used for making
highly acceptable noodles/vermicelli which are hypo-glycaemic too.
Traditional methods of cereal
processing (popping and flaking) as well as the contemporary ones (roller
drying/extrusion cooking) can be successfully employed for preparing various
millet based ready-to-eat products. Thus, a variety of extruded
millet-cereal-pulse snacks can be prepared commercially for easy availability
and wider use. Similarly, millet-cereal-pulse blends can be used in preparing murukus,
papads, vadiyan, bhujia, vermicelli, spaghetti, noodles, macaroni etc.
Various millet blends along with wheat can be used for making multi-grain
flour, baked products like biscuits, cookies, breads, buns, rusks, cakes and
muffins. Sorghum (Jowar) malt is being used for preparing the
infant foods. Since extrusion processing lowers the anti-nutritional factors
and enhances digestibility of the millets; extruded millet products can be
promoted as healthy snacks/ health foods.
Partially processed millet products –
ready to cook/instant foods, can be made available in the market; due to ease
in preparation, these can promote millet consumption and thus, create a demand
for these nutritious grains and simultaneously reduce the reliance on staples
like rice and wheat.
In view of numerous benefits
conferred by the millets, our farmers should aim at growing more and more of
the millets; and we as consumers, should include millets in our daily food
basket. Apart from increasing the production and consumption, in today’s era of
modernization, industrialization and urbanization, we need to adequately
process the millets to create a variety of value added nutritious products as
per the taste, texture, flavour of the consumers.
Further, the public needs to be made aware of the
benefits conferred by millets and their role in combating the ill effects of
westernized sedentary lifestyle so that they can lead a healthy life.
Give a try; include millets in your forthcoming meals and enjoy the
benefits conferred by these tiny nutritious grains!!!!
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