India Insights: Small grains, big hopes – How Odisha is tackling economic and environmental exigency through revival of millets
Ola Zarko
Most don’t consider the huge impact that tiny grains can have in a region, or even an entire country. The state of Odisha has adopted a policy of reviving the cultivation of millets in its districts. The presence of the grains in the area can be traced back to the Neolithic period and linked to tribal traditions. However, despite a historic relation with the crops, Odisha shifted its focus to the cultivation of rice and wheat during the 1960s. Climate change is threatening to undo this shift: currently, the state’s agriculture has demonstrated a need for millet horticulture’s reintroduction, given climate change’s drastic impact. Millet cultivation has drastically impacted farmers, food security and local school’s meal systems in the region, in addition to demonstrating governments’ response to environmental and economic pressures.
Odisha’s Millet History and Mission
Prior to being rice and wheat-centric, Odisha focused its agricultural efforts on millets. The Green Revolution, however, forced farmers towards new priorities. The Indian government establish the revolution as a policy to promote high-yield varieties (HYV) and fight food scarcity. The farming subsides further strengthened the policy’s implementation, as it became centred around the revolution’s grains. Furthermore, a social stigmas played a significant role. While rice was considered a prestigious food, millets were perceived as “poor people’s food”, further boosting the procurement of rice and wheat. These factors led to the vanishing of the seeds not only in Odisha, but throughout India, leading to rice and wheat cultivation to grow 300% following the revolution. Nonetheless, the contemporary era is driving India to revert to its roots, given the current climate crisis and superior nutritional value consideration. These factors led the Government of Odisha to initiate a program to reimplement millets back into their lives.
The inception of the Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) marks another revolution in India’s agricultural sector. To counter the negative impact of climate change, address regional malnutrition, and improve population’s income, Odisha has been investing in millet revival. Beginning in 2017 and working across 15 districts, OMM encourages sustainable farming, reintegration of the seeds in the region’s diet, and improvement of tribal farmer livelihoods. The program also invests in the improvement of soil health, quality of the seed, agronomic practices, and mechanization. Overall, the mission’s foundational aim of the mission is to enhance general nutrition and food security. Suresh Kumar Vashishth, commissioner-cum-secretary to the Department of Agriculture and Farmer’s Empowerment explained the soul of the mission, saying that “we knew if we could increase consumption at the household level, it would lead to a demand for millets and people would grow millets”. The importance of the program has reached the global stage, with the UN General Assembly recognizing 2023 as the Year of Millets, serving as validation to the OMM’s venerable work. As a result to the arduous work, Odisha’s agriculture sector grew 8.3% between 2018 and 2019.
Impact On Farmers, Food Security, And School Meal Systems
The ramifications that millet cultivation’s revival has had on farmers cannot go undervalued. Across Odisha, over 50,000 farmers have adopted the suggested agronomic practices, conducting them into a more environmentally conscious cultivation process. Nonetheless, the primary impacts lay on the financial and dietary realms. Due to the growing interest in millets, local farmers have a financial incentive to farm the crops and sell their products. Moreover, the program also provides hiring-based equipment’s to farmers to facilitate their labour. Good quality seeds are also provided, which leads to good quality crops, and, eventually, good quality products. It is paramount how much the endorsing of millets has done for farmers, as the mission also contributes by purchasing a portion of their products; however, it is required that the workers follow four prerequisites, which are:
1. Seed treatment: this will lead to the prevention of diseases and pests, simultaneously increasing the purity of the crop.
2. Applying enhanced agronomic practices, such as Line Transplanting (LT), System of Millet Intensification (SMI), and Line Sowing (LS).
3. Application of appropriate manure, compost, as to improve soil quality and health.
4. Usage of pest management preparations.
The growth of millets has also made a notable on the state’s food security. Millets are rich in iron, calcium, and dietary fibre which addresses the malnutrition levels in the region. Furthermore, they can also reduce the risk of heart diseases, diabetes and digestion-related complications. Millet intake can also assist on the improvement of nervous system and respiratory health. Food security is not only about the quality and nutrition levels of product, but it is also directly linked to climate change. India is a prominent victim of the global climate crisis, which leads to the deterioration of food products in the country. The reviving of millet cultivation in Odisha also hopes to address it as they are ecological sustainable and climate resistant.
Moreover, millets are a way to incentivise climate-resilient agriculture. The crops do not require nearly as much water as other crops, such as rice. They thrive with minimal care and when planted in drylands, which is the most common type of soil in the state. Finally, there’s an intersection between millet cultivation impact on farmers and food security, which is the low possibility of climate shock for farmers. During climate shocks, land workers are likely to lose great sum of products, leaving them with low income and food. Thus, millets can protect farmers from losing a great part of their plantations and offer them nutritious intake.
Directly linked to addressing malnutrition, the reinstate in farming the crops is likely to enhance the standard of school meals spanning the state. Starting in 2021, the government of Odisha launched a program that offers children at school free and nutritious lunches, called the Mid-day Meal (MDM), later renamed PM-Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN). OMM desires to widen its sphere of influence to include MDM and different Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS). By virtue of penetrating the school system, the promotion of millets has the opportunity to simultaneously address malnutrition and food security, as well as ensuring greater child maturation. Furthermore, the district of Keonjhar has included millets in children’s diets since 2020, which is available to 87,500 children. The wide acceptance of Keonjhar’s initiative has influenced Sundargarh’s government to replicate it in the district.
The efforts extended by the government for the purpose of promoting economic growth and addressing environmental crisis are visible. The climate crisis is a pressing matter, and Odisha is focused on securing sustainable food sources to its population, given as millets are climate resilient and drought resistance. Consequently, the people Odisha would be able to sustain a nutritious diet throughout an extreme climate event. Regarding the economic pressures, millets are increasing farmers’ incomes, improving their livelihoods and quality of life.
