How is India celebrating the Millet Year 2023?

How is India celebrating the Millet Year 2023?
Subhead - Round up of campaigns initiated in India to mark the International Millet Year 2023 and country’s initiatives to make the millet year a success.

2023 is the International year of millets, and many measures are being taken to promote the consumption and farming of millets. As per the Government of India website, 15 activities have been planned over 15 days in January alone!

The government is going all out to promote the consumption of millets. They have collaborated with sports persons, nutritionists, and fitness experts and a lot of promotion for incorporating millets is being done through the Fit India App as well.

Video messages, hosting webinars, and running advertisements on millets are in the pipeline as well.

International Year of Millets inauguration

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FOA) of the United Nations, recently organized the opening ceremony for the International Year of Millets in Rome, Italy.

At the opening ceremony, the Indian delegation led
by Shobha Karandlaje, Indian Minister of State for Agriculture, on behalf of PM Narendra Modi, thanked the global community for its support to India’s proposal to mark the International Year of Millets (IYM).

It was conveyed that millets are good for the consumer, cultivator, and climate. It is nutritious and can be cultivated in semi-arid zones besides consuming less water for irrigation.

Shobha Karandlaje, in her speech said that nations need to collaborate to develop a sustainable future, and millets will play a pivotal role in the process. In the ceremony, Karandlaje said IYM2023 would lead India toward food and nutritional security.

At the ceremony, Director General, FAO, Qu Dongyu said the IYM 2023 will provide us with a unique opportunity to give visibility to crops that have great potential to strengthen global nutrition, food security, decent jobs, and economies while accelerating climate action.

The International Year of Millets is a great opportunity to increase global production and efficient processing. It will encourage better crop rotation and promote millets as a major component of our food basket. Millets will bring the much needed diversity in our crops and on our food table.

Initiatives to make Millet year a people movement

Many initiatives are being undertaken by the department of agriculture which includes extensive social media campaigns on the importance of millet, distribution of millets for mid-day meals and distribution of millets through Anganwadi centers on the day of launch.

PM Narendra Modi ji’s vision for IYM2023 is that the millet year be seen as a 'People's Movement'. The ultimate goal is to position India as the 'Global Hub for Millets’.

Other campaigns

These were some other campaigns and initiates for IYM 2023-

1.   Showcasing millet recipes in hotels and restaurants in 3-7 days from the launch of IYM 2023.

2.   All Indian Embassies across the globe have a millet food festival on launch day.

3.   Stakeholder’s involvement in all major millet-producing districts.

4.   Railways and Airlines to serve millet cuisines

5.    Launch of a cookbook with millet recipes.

These are the active government campings that promote millet:

1.   Nutrition through Nutri cereals.

2.   Tagline competition for food event 2023.

3.   Logo for mega food event 2023.

4.   Millet magic recipe contest.

5.   The goodness of millet quiz.

6.   Mighty millets.

These are some interesting past camping by the government of India:

1.   Importance of millet for a healthy diet.

2.   Inviting Videos from Millets Ambassador.

3.   Anna Devo Bhava 3.0 Quiz.

4.   Make interesting comics on millets.

5.   Compose catchy songs on Millet.

6.   Create an informative documentary on millets.

7.   Inviting innovative ideas to increase millet production and consumption.

8.   Create a documentary on the importance of millet.

9.   Create awareness about millets through songs.

10. Designing creative logos for the International Year of Millets.

The plan and initiative for millet year promotion began way back in 2018 with 2018 being declared as a National year of Millets. Renamed as nutri-cereal, this poor man’s food is now slowly becoming a rich man’s essential.

Millets have been around for a long time and there is evidence of millets being the first crop to be domesticated in India. Millets are grown in more than 130 countries in the world currently and have documented evidence of being beneficial for the consumer and climate.

With India leading multiple initiatives at local, national and global level, it is time we make it a people’s movement and take a pledge to celebrate the International Year of Millets at family level.

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