Why do millets matter?

Devinder Sharma, nationally acclaimed in India for his work on food security writes: “If I were to ask you to list the natural foods you eat, it would go somewhat like this. Wheat, rice, tomato, cucumber, apple, banana… you begin to reel out the names. Not many can go beyond 20. Try a little harder, and you will probably end up with another 10. Push yourself a little more, that number could go up to 35. That’s it.” On the other hand, as Sharma points out, a forest tribal in India is still accustomed to a diet of 1500 different kinds of food. India’s traditional varied food culture, which itself is linked to its inherent natural resources and richness in agro-biodiversity, has been increasingly eroded in favour of what is called “a globalized diet.”

The globalized diet, the child of industrial agriculture and a market economy, relies on 3 major staples: rice, wheat and corn. These 3 grains together form over 50% of the world's daily calorie intake. Rice and wheat in particular have been heavily promoted in India with research policies and subsidies. Internationally, however, in the era of climate change-induced crop failures, policy makers are recognizing the follies of narrowing down our diet to these few crops. Moreover, rice and wheat are not climate change resilient crops. Wheat is an extremely thermally sensitive crop: as the temperature increases, the yield from wheat substantially decreases. And modern rice cultivation is water intensive. It also aggravates the problem of climate change: methane, a potent climate change gas, is produced due to the stagnant water in the paddy fields.

The millets, on the other hand, could be the key to providing food security in the climate change era as they can withstand higher heat regimes and grow in poor soils in non-irrigated fields. Best of all, millets are regarded as a complete food as they are highly nutritious. Thus, when I was contacted to help make a movie on climate justice, I decided to focus on the issue of millets and food security.

Practically every agricultural region in India was once home to different varieties of millets and a meal of millets was an inherent part of an Indian’s diet, but as market forces started influencing traditional agricultural practices, millet cultivation has steadily declined. Unlike rice, wheat and sugar, millets do not receive any subsidies from the government. And while millets grow easily, processing millets for consumption is labour-intensive. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, millets do not command a good price on the market as opposed to other crops. Ram Subramanian who heads the Sustainable Livelihood Institute at Auroville, bluntly told me that it is only tribals in the forests who still grow millets and directed me to visit the Tribal Health Initiative in Sittlingi.

The Tribal Health Initiative is a hospital for remote tribal villages started by Dr. Regi and Lalitha George twenty years ago in the Sittlingi valley of Kalrayan hills in western Tamil Nadu. As doctors, Regi and Lalitha knew about the role nutrition plays in preventive health care, so about a decade ago, they undertook a padayatra (walking journey) through the villages talking about the importance of organic food and millets. This resulted in an organic farmers’ cooperative movement, currently 500 strong and growing, in the region. A sine qua non condition for being part of this organization was that the farmers would grow at least one acre of millets. Regi explained that millet cultivation was being abandoned in favour of more lucrative crops like tapioca. But he knew that if the farmers grew some millets, at least they would consume a part of it. Regi’s strategy worked out. Today, while the Sittlingi farmers’ cooperative sells millets and even processed millet items like cookies to outside stores, a portion of the millets is consumed locally. “By just having one millet-based meal, every day, the nutrition and health of the local people has vastly improved,” says Regi for “in terms of nutrients such as proteins, fibre, iron, minerals or micro-nutrients, millets are much more superior to wheat and rice.” Local production and consumption are the best ways to ensure food security in these uncertain times of declining product due to changes in the climate.

Millet cultivation in the Auroville area has steadily decreased due to a number of reasons, including lack of demand. Says Tomas, who manages Annapurna, Auroville’s largest grain farm: “Last year we lost heavily in the area of cultivating millets. The kudravalli crop, which was poor to begin with, was fully destroyed by the peacocks; the varagu (kodo millet) crop yields were 50% less than normal and of poor quality because of too little rain and some wildlife damage. Also, processing the poor crop will give less return and take more labour to complete. Even in good years these crops are hardly breaking even because of low yields and increasing labor cost. Annapurna cannot afford to grow it on a larger scale any longer. We will try to purchase varagu in the bioregion after the monsoon, but even that might prove difficult.

“If Auroville is really serious about wanting millets grown on its farms we need to make a very comprehensive assessment, as well as commit ourselves as a community, financially, to develop systems which are in the long run doable. Required investments will never be financially viable in our current economic thinking, which is focussed on the short-term and has to be seen in a different light.

“Left to the farmers, these crops will simply disappear. Residents, the consumers, need to give voice to their food requirements, and get more actively involved to help ensure these millets continue to be available.”

As a community, Auroville seems to have a narrow focus regarding economic security, which does not include looking at how best to secure local, organic food. As Tomas implies, farmers are pretty much left to their own devices instead of following a vision of planning to ensure food security in the future. In India, however, climate change has forced planners to radically change their past direction and recognize the need for agro-biodiversity. For the first time in India, millets have been included in the Public Distribution System in the National Food Security Act of 2013. The Public Distribution System is a social policy where the government facilitates the supply of food grains at subsidized prices through “ration” or fair price shops to about 160 million poor families. To implement the directive in the National Food Security Act, Karnataka has already taken steps to grow ragi and varagu millets on a large scale by offering incentives to the farmers. Perhaps Auroville can take a cue from such initiatives and distribute millets in its “in-kind”/cashless internal economy.