Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, spoke on the benefits of millets and coarse grains at the inauguration of World Food India 2017, held between 3-5 November 2017 at New Delhi. He highlighted the role of millets in ensuring food security and nutrition, underlining their resilience to adverse climate conditions, and their potential to ensure increased incomes for resource-poor farmers. He said,
“Food processing also holds solutions to nutrition security. For example, our coarse grains and millets have high nutritional value. They can also withstand adverse agro-climatic conditions. They can be called ‘nutrition rich and climate smart‘ crops. Can we take up a venture based on these? This will raise incomes of some of the poorest of our farmers, and also enhance our nutrition levels. Such products, shall, of course, find resonance across the world.”
For the entire speech, visit pages at http://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pms-address-at-world-food-india-2017/.
ICRISAT’s Smart Food initiative is committed to taking these ancient grains to consumers worldwide. Read more about the initiative at www.icrisat.org/smartfood
For more information on ICRISAT’s research on millets and coarse grains, please visit http://exploreit.icrisat.org/