Millets: Unveiling the Past, Nourishing the Future
While millets are now envisioned as part of the food systems of the future; we might have, in our zeal, forgotten to understand their past. In “Unveiling the Past, Nourishing the Future,” we explored the historical entanglements of millets and agriculture, current farmer experiences and challenges growing millets, and the role of women in farming and preserving heirloom crops.
Meet Our Panellists
Dr. Dorian Fuller, Professor of Archaeobotany, University College London
The Millet Revival Project also interviewed Dr. Fuller about how botany and archaeology come together in his work. Read the interview: What Can Charred Plant Remains Tell Us About the History of Millet Cultivation?
“We tend to think of millets as low yielding because there wasn’t really much research on intensifying them in the past."
Dr. Fuller took the audience on a historical journey, exploring ancient food crops staple to India: the mung bean, horse gram, browntop millet, and bristleleaf foxtail millet. He explained the domestication of African millets like sorghum and noted that their entry into the Indian subcontinent led to a decline in native millets like kodo, barnyard, and browntop. Addressing whether millets can ensure food security for a large population, he said, “We tend to think of millets as low yielding because there wasn’t really much research on intensifying them in the past. In the colonial period in India, the British were interested in rice and wheat, maybe barley.”
Krishna Prasad, Director of Sahaja Samrudha, Karnataka
Read about Mr. Prasad’s work to conserve indigenous seeds and their importance in India’s Desi Seed Savers Are Decolonizing Cotton.
“Farmers are scientists. They are best equipped to lead seed saving measures and formulate improved cultivation practices.”
Mr. Prasad spoke about Sahaja Samrudha’s engagement with farmers to ensure multi-cropping with millets, and prioritise genetic diversity: currently the farmers grow all 9 millets found in India, and have also preserved 78 ragi varieties. Sahaja Samrudha is a farmers’ collective working with small and marginal farmers to safeguard agrobiodiversity and create sustainable villages that grow organic, nutritious crops. Their efforts include creating a platform that connects producers to consumers directly, which ensures transparency and financial benefits for farmers. “Farmers are scientists,” he emphasised, and “they are best equipped to lead seed saving measures and formulate improved cultivation practices.”
Wekoweu Tsuhah, State Coordinator of Northeast Network, Nagaland.
Northeast Network is a women’s rights organisation that works on issues of gender and environmental justice in northeast India. She has been quoted in Down to Earth, The Guardian and other publications.
“[Women farmers have] brought back collective farming concepts and influenced community institutions to revive millets."
Ms. Tsuhah offered a glimpse into the agricultural practices in Nagaland, and highlighted the role women play in conserving biodiversity, seed saving and the fact that they have “brought back collective farming concepts and influenced community institutions to revive millets.” She noted that foxtail millet has always been important for community cohesion as it was grown collectively. Traditional festivals connected to millets have died down due to decreased significance of millets, and her work at NEN tries to revive cultural practices as well as traditional crops and farming practices.
Discussion
The audience, a diverse group of millet enthusiasts, food researchers, policy professionals, and chefs, engaged actively with the panel, posing questions ranging from the stigma associated with millets to the challenges of multi-cropping. The panellists addressed these with thoughtful answers, noting the slow shift in perception of millets from a poor person’s food to a superfood, and the need to balance market demand with access for farmers to consume their own produce.
As we try to grapple with what the future of food systems look like, and how millets fit into the picture, Dr. Fuller highlighted knowledge gaps, stressing the need for more research on the individual tolerance ranges of millet species to differing environmental conditions. Ms. Tsuhah pointed out the importance of providing small-scale processing machines operated by women to promote minor millets and break gender barriers in agriculture.
The panellists emphasised the need for a millet policy which prioritises collaboration between researchers, government departments and non-governmental organisations, farmers, and consumers to foster equal participation in agricultural policy, one that doesn’t overlook millets, especially minor millets.
Learnings
• We were fascinated to learn that browntop millet, which is now relatively unheard of, was once a staple food in South India. Mr. Prasad said that they have seen the browntop crop survive where maize and soybean have failed due to adverse climatic conditions.
• We were happy to learn that Sahaja Samrudha and NEN were working to not just revive crops, but also bring back festivals associated with them. They believe strongly that cultural and agricultural practices go hand in hand.
• All the panellists spoke about the need to foreground farmers when we talk of food systems: the need to ensure that increasing demand doesn’t make millets inaccessible to growers, improving processing technology to reduce drudgery, and remembering the contributions of women and marginalised farmers in millet preservation.
This session was a collaboration between The Locavore and Rainmatter Foundation for the Millet Revival Project.
Beyond the Plate is an initiative by The Locavore where we engage in meaningful conversations, live events, and dining experiences that look at food beyond the sum of its parts. It is our attempt to narrow the divide between what’s on our plate, where it comes from, how it’s produced, and the deeper stories around it.
Login with Google