Jowar vegetable upma, bajra khichdi, ragi ladoo, bajre ka choorma — these are just a few items that will be available for all the ministers in the parliament house canteens.

So, what does your daily diet look like? Apart from the most popular, wheat and rice, are there other cereals that you consume? The reduced presence of these in our daily diet is leading to lifestyle diseases like diabetes and obesity, with their accompanying complications. So what are the essential nutrients that we need and where can we get them? The answer is Whole grains. Grains like sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi), and buckwheat (kuttu), which are prepared on special occasions, are excellent sources of nutrition. Let us understand the significance of this group of grains, these superfoods, called ‘millets’.

Millets are one of the oldest foods known to humankind. Their charred grains have been found at the Harappan sites and they are also mentioned in the Vedas (one of the oldest archaeological and literary sources of our subcontinent, respectively). An ancient grain, millets have been used both for our consumption and as animal feed. Scientifically speaking, millets are a group of small-seeded cereal grains that belong to the family of grasses (Poaceae family). Depending upon their size, they are broadly divided into two categories: major millets (sorghum, pearl millet, and finger millet) and minor millets (little millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, and kodo millet). Botanists have counted two pseudo millets too namely, buckwheat and amaranth.

Millets are superfoods. They outshine wheat and rice in many aspects. They are high in both macro-nutrients, like proteins and fats, and micro-nutrients, like iron and calcium. They guard us against many vitamin and mineral deficiencies. They are rich in fibre, are gluten-free, and have a low glycaemic index (GI) which means low impact on your blood sugar. Cold drinks, pizzas, and burgers have high GI!

Fun fact. Finger millets have over ten times the calcium content of wheat or rice, and barnyard has over five times the iron! Look at the approximate nutrient content, given per 100 grams of the edible portion of a food crop, displayed in these graphics.

Millets can grow with less water and in harsh temperatures. For example, pearl millet can grow well in Rajasthan's heat. Minor millets provide enough yield even when the monsoons fail. Furthermore, millet farming does not need chemical fertilizers much and their crops hardly attract any pests! So, cultivating them is not only inexpensive but is also good for our environment.

Today, we don't see much cultivation of millets in India, but that wasn't the case always. Millets were quite common until a few decades ago. In the tribal parts of our country, they still are. Before the Green Revolution, millet production was about 40 percent of all cultivated grains, contributing much more than wheat and rice. However, since the Revolution, the production of rice has doubled and wheat has tripled. Over time, as millets became less attractive to urban and young consumers, they ended up becoming the ‘poor man's food.’ Today, millets are available as cookies, bars, and snacks. But try avoiding these packaged foods as they have a lot of refined flour and sugar.

People need to gain awareness about the benefits of millets. Many people have also forgotten how to cook them. It can be used as a substitute for rice in almost any rice-based dish. You can also make porridge, roti, khichdi, upma, dosa and kheer out of millets.

In 2021-22, India was the largest producer of millets in the world. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana were the top five millet-producing states in our country. This is because of the efforts of these states and their governments. The parliament has already added millet to their canteen menus to promote its consumption and to honor the year of millets. More on that in the following episode of the millet series. If you liked this video, please give us a thumbs up and write down in the comments section what you liked in the video and what else you would like to watch on our channel. If you are interested in such topics and others related to sustainability and our environment, please subscribe to our channel, Down to earth.

Down to Earth is Science and Environment fortnightly published by the Society for Environmental Communication, New Delhi. We publish news and analysis on issues that deal with sustainable development, which we scan through the eyes of science and environment.