Who released a report titled ‘Promoting Millets in Diets‘?
[A] Food Corporation of India
[B] World Food Programme
[C] National Institute of Food Technology
[D] NITI Aayog
Current Affairs
- NITI Aayog released a report titled Promoting Millets in Diets: Best Practices across States/UTs of India.
- Recently, Odisha has decided to introduce locally produced millets for the first time into Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme and Public Distribution System (PDS).
- The initiatives will be carried out as a part of the Odisha’s Millet Mission (2017).
Report in three themes
- (a) State Missions and initiatives to promote millets;
- (b) Inclusion of millets in ICDS; Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)
- (c) Research and development and use of technology for innovative practices.
Millet
| Millets | ||
| 1 | Ragi | Finger millet |
| 2 | Jowar | Sorghum |
| 3 | Sama | Little millet |
| 4 | Bajra | Pearl millet |
| 5 | Variga | Proso millet |
Millet-growing states
Main millet-growing states in India are Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
Research on millets – Research on millets is carried out by
- International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
- ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research in Telangana, India,
- United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at Tifton, Georgia, United States
Why millet crop is favored?
- Millets are adapted to poor, dry infertile soils,
- They are more reliable under adverse conditions than most other grain crops.
- Millet crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high-temperature conditions.
Millets
- ‘Okashana 1’, a variety developed in India from a natural-growing millet variety in Burkina Faso doubled yields.
- In 2020, global production of millet was 30.5 million tonnes, led by India with 41% of the world total.
- People affected by gluten-related disorders, such as coeliac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers,who need a gluten-free diet, can replace gluten-containing cereals in their diets with millet
