Courtesy my grand-parents and parents, millets have been an integral part of my childhood.
At least one in five people I speak to at the local farmers market want to consume millets or already have millets as a part of their diet.
The year 2023 has been declared by the UN as the “International year of millets”.
These are instances which got me thinking deeper about this ancient set of grains, which in the broader scheme of things; seem non-existent or existing just as another super-food.
Let’s talk about millets and the past -
I come from a traditional Kutchi family that has inhabited Bombay (now Mumbai) since the 1930s. I’ve grown up consuming “Bajra no rotlo and makhan” (Bajra bread & white butter) for breakfasts and “Jowar bhakri and thecha” (Jowar bread and green chiili chutney) for dinners regularly. My grandmother and later my mother used to make these breads on clay pans while assuring we consumed these millets at least a few times every week. Although it sounds like a local delicacy, these meals were seen as just a normal meal and never as a special occasion.
Back in those days, millets like jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), ragi (finger millet) & varai (little millet) made regular appearances not just at my house but also when we visited relatives, exchanged meals with neighbours or shared tiffins with friends.
Afternoon meals at home were times when I also got to savour stories from my grandmother. These short stories and experience sharing frequently used to be about food and our native place kutch.
One incident shared by her that has always been stuck in my head, is about farmers in Kutch regularly having bajra rotis for breakfast and packing some more for lunch. She always emphasized that bajra was the primary reason they would be healthy, strong and could work on the field for long hours.
These stories and the presence of millets as a regular in our diet at home is what highlight the importance of these tiny but power-packed grains.
As time passed by, the appearances reduced for reasons I never asked and never realized, until I started on my journey of understanding our food habits and ingredients – rooted in tradition & nutrition. From the initial days of my journey till date, millets regularly make an appearance in most conversations – may it be with farmers in the heartland of India, a mentor I am speaking to or a contemporary I bump into.
Millets and the present –
I’ve been a regular at “Kavita Mukhi’s Orgainc farmers market” in Bandra (Mumbai), for more than 4 years. My reasons for being at the market every Sunday is work, getting my hands on some local organic produce or just the community of organic souls I get to interact with. In recent times, multiple conversations have led to millets – where folks mention about their want to consume millets or already having them as part of their daily diet.
These conversations create a sense of how millets are slowly but surely making a comeback, after a few decades of almost being non-existent and irrelevant in the minds of consumers. Millets have once again started getting some acceptance and recognition – even though it’s primarily for just it’s nutritional and health benefits.
But are millets just nutritional supplements or a healthier set of grains to control or cure health issues?
The answer lies in our past. The answer lies in our traditions.
(Note – If I have any doubts or queries about nutrition, health or our diet – all I do is go back into our past and dig into our traditions. I always find the right answer)
Millets and the Future -
The United Nations has announced the year 2023 to be the “International year of millets.
But why did the UN suddenly think about millets?
It was India’s proposal to the World Health Organisation (a UN body), supported by 70 other nations that led to the UN declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets (under the UN’s Decade of Action on Nutrition till 2025).
“Millets are among the first plants to have been domesticated and are considered "nutri-cereals" due to their high nutritional content. While they have served as a traditional staple for hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia for some 7 000 years – and are now cultivated across the world, their cultivation is declining. Accompanying this decline has been their untapped potential to address climate change and food security”.
With this as a backdrop, the Government of India proposed an International Year of Millets in 2023
To shed more light on this, India has been fighting with an unending agricultural crisis for many decades while the nutritional profile of its population (especially women and children) has been deteriorating rapidly. This, along with the unclaimed water crisis has led us to shift our focus towards millets.
As humans in this modern world, we have a strong sense of belief that modern development is the only way forward. We might be creating innovative solutions, but the reality is that these solutions lack a holistic approach & the grounded fundamentals that have supported our planet for centuries.
Our current food system & our modern diet are a clear example of the same. Both seem to be collapsing (across the world).
Let’s take just the example of anaemia in the Indian context. As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21) at least 67 per cent children (6-59 months) have anaemia as compared to 58.6 per cent in the last survey conducted in 2015-16. Among adults, 57 per cent of women and 25 percent of men (in the 15-49 group) have anaemia, the report stated.
Isn’t this alarming?
If we talk about our food system - farmer suicide numbers in India are not hidden from any of us either.
But as they say, “It’s never too late to start again”.
The bright part to this is that we have built the courage to accept our faults and we have already started looking back for solutions. This is surely a step in the right direction and this surely makes millets our future.
Millets will be everywhere. They will be all over the planet in every form we can think off.
As consumers or farmers, we’ll all have to play our part. And the most important part is to look back into our past, rediscover our food values and build a strong belief into millets – rooted in tradition and nutrition.
So, may it be for food security, for its nutritional benefits, to provide better income security to the farmers, to mitigate the water crisis or just because they are strongly integrated in our culture and tradition – Millets are the past, present and surely the future.
Nice 👍