Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference)

Why in Broadcast?

PM Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in New Delhi on 18 March, 2023.

The two-day global conference had sessions on all important issues related to millets (Shree Anna) like promotion and awareness of millets among producers, consumers and other stakeholders; millets’ value chain development; health and nutritional aspects of millets; market linkages; research and development etc.

Millet is a collective term for a number of smallseeded annual grasses cultivated as grain crops, primarily on marginal lands in dry areas in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions.
They include cereals like sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), foxtail millet (kangni/ Italian millet), little millet (kutki), kodo millet, finger millet (ragi/ mandua) etc.
There is evidence for consumption of millets in the Indus-Sarasvati civilisation (3,300 to 1300 BCE), they were the first crops to be domesticated.

Millets are now grown in more than 130 countries, and are the traditional food for more than half a billion people in Asia and Africa.
Globally, sorghum (jowar) is the biggest millet crop. The major producers of jowar are the United States, China, Australia, India, Argentina, Nigeria, and Sudan.
Bajra is another major millet crop and countries like India and some other African countries are its major producers.
Major millet importing countries in the world include Indonesia, Belgium, Japan, Mexico, Italy, USA, UK, Brazil and Netherlands.

Millets are mainly a kharif crop in India. During 2018-19, three millet crops i,e. bajra (3.67%), jowar (2.13%), and ragi (0.48%), accounted for about 7 per cent of the gross cropped area in the country.
As per DGCIS data, India has total export of millets around 159,331.16 metric tonnes against 147, 501.08 metric tonnes last year, thus the country registered a growth of 8.02% in millet exports.
India’s major export destination are UAE, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Oman, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, UK and USA.

The Indian Prime Minister in his message said that it it is a symbol of India’s responsibilities towards the global good.
International Year of Millets’ is providing a unique opportunity to increase global production, ensure efficient processing, consumption, and subsequently promote better utilization of crop rotations.
The extended trade of millets on a global level can encourage better connectivity throughout food systems while also promoting it as a key component of the food basket.