The Millet Revival Project, in collaboration with the Rainmatter Foundation, aims to reinvigorate our relationship with millets through research, events, community engagement, recipes, and impactful storytelling.
What impact does cultivating millets have on the natural resources and farmers of India? How do we encourage consumers to choose eating practices that are good for both people and the planet? What links the two, and how flavourful can it be?
Since early 2023, we have been on an incredible journey with the Rainmatter Foundation to understand and revive millets, the ancient grains that have nourished us for generations.
Explore more about our ongoing work on the Millet Revival Project website. Here are a few glimpses of our impact so far:
Stories
Our stories and interviews examine millets from previously unexplored perspectives. They range from interviews and book excerpts, to reported features and essays. Learn what millet growers have to say about the grains, how we know what place millets held in early agriculture, why they grow well in arid regions, and how they can aid us to move to a more resilient food future.
Read all our stories here.
Recipes
We bring together talented chefs and home cooks to put together a collection of millet-based recipes.Our dedicated volunteers continue to innovate with millets, understanding the possibilities and limitations of each, bringing forth their incredible potential to nourish us in fun and accessible ways.
Find more recipes here.
Events
We host events around the country, from Mumbai to Shillong, to spotlight millets, and team up with restaurants, brands, chefs, and millet experts to bring the millet revolution, with all its intricacies, to our kitchens.
Resources
We curate an open-access repository of trailblazing farmer groups, environmental organizations, consumer brands, restaurants, and experts working in the millet space.
Find our curated resources here.
Research
We conduct research that examines the impact of the climate crisis on millet growers, policies and gaps therein, and nutritional security. Our goal is to understand the scientific research conducted around millets, and communicate it to you, with all its promises and flaws.
We consult experts in agriculture, policy, and nutrition to inform our perspectives and synthesise this knowledge to make it easily accessible. We are currently conducting in-depth interviews with agricultural scientists and policy experts to understand what a millet-inclusive future entails. We also conduct surveys with consumers, farmers, and farmer producer organisations to know more about the difficulties encountered in cooking, eating, and working with millets.
We also attempt to understand millet-cultivation patterns and yield trends over time, thus identifying regional variations.
We also organise virtual, bi-monthly public talks under the ‘Beyond the Plate’ banner, inviting experts to tell us about their work with millets. These conversations span a range of topics—from archaeobotany, which highlights the history of millet cultivation in agricultural systems, to how our food histories shape what we value as ‘desirable’ foods, and why millets are an essential part of the public distribution system.
We’re also conducting a Millet Survey to meaningfully understand millets—an ingredient that we at The Locavore, and the Millet Revival Project work with intimately. Help us make a difference with just 10 minutues of your time and fill the survey here.
In the media
• 2023 Is The Year Of The Millet. What Are We Doing About It? By Samreen Tungekar, Grazia
• Yes, Chef!, Google Arts & Culture
• Helping millets get their mojo back By Shruti Sonal, The Times of India
• The Future of Healthy Eating: Hyper-Local And Farm-To-Table By Swati Sucharita, Slurrp
• NESFAS, The Locavore, Shillong Chefs and communities from Meghalaya commemorate millet in an ingenious way By Alethea Lyngdoh, Worngachan A Shatsang, NESFAS
• NESFAS celebrates Meghalaya’s heritage millet, The Shillong Times
• There is more to millets than just porridge and pancakes By Avantika Bhuyan, Mint Lounge
• Millet has distinctive taste and its taste is quite nice, Syllad | The Rising Meghalaya
Meet the team
Meet the Millet Revival Project team here!
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