As part of our series for the "International Year of Millets", IIT Bombay is organizing a second Institute Talk. Details of the Talk are as follows: 

Title: 'Potential of Millets: From Farm to Plate' 

Speakers:  Prof. Srijit Mishra, Professor and Dean Academic & Student Affairs, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai

Abstract:  The United Nations has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The millet crops, like all cereals, are from the grass family. Once touted as poor man's food, it is now considered as smart food, as millets are good for the planet (for its resilience to biotic and abiotic stress; on an average water requirement is 70% that of rice, the time requirement is 50% that of wheat, and energy for processing is 40% that of maize; carbon footprint of 3,218 kg ha-1 is 80% that of wheat and 95% that of rice), good for the consumer (for its nutritional properties that rise to eminence as we are moving out of a pandemic; high dietary fiber: 38% in little millet and 14% in Kodo millet, high protein: 12-16% in pearl millet/proso millet/Kodo millet, high lipid: 4-6% in pearl millet, high calcium: 300-350 mg/100g in finger millet, as also other macro- and micro-nutrients), and good for the producer (for its livelihood implications in the larger value chain with its forward and backward linkages). Unfortunately, with the ascendance of the green revolution that focused on rice and wheat, millets were relegated. Now, there has been a clarion call for their revival and a way forward would resonate with some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2 zero hunger, SDG 3 good health and well-being, SDG 12 sustainable consumption and production, and SDG 13 climate action).

Keeping these in the background the talk will also draw from the Odisha Millets Mission's journey from farm to plate and also from elsewhere.  It will focus on the philosophical moorings of such a public policy (the forging of space for orphaned crops, marginal lands, and vulnerable populations); the coming together of academia, government, and civil society for a pro-people action (along with the breaking down of silos within and between these domains); the aligning of top-down decision structures with bottom-up feedback loops; the concurrent focus on production, processing, marketing and consumption; the building of bridges to the usage of the knowledge that acknowledges the relevance of science and tradition; and knowledge flow from the local to the global and vice versa.

Odisha Millets Mission started in 2017. The first-year outcome, compared to a baseline, led to a doubling of output per hectare (from 5.792 qtl ha-1 to 12.72 qtl ha-1) and trebling of additional value per household (from ₹3,957 to ₹12,486), paving the way for the program's expansion from 30 blocks (a block is a subdivision of a rural administrative district) across seven districts in year one (2017-18) to 84 blocks across 15 districts by year five (2021-22). The Programme expanded from 8,030 farmers cultivating millets in 3,399 hectares in year one to 1,18,561 farmers cultivating millets in 54,496 hectares in year five,  and, in 2022-23, the planned expansion is 81,700 hectares in 142 blocks across 19 districts. 

About the Speaker: Srijit Mishra, Ph.D., is a Professor and Dean of Academic and Student Affairs, at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, and was formerly Director, of Nabakrushna Choudhury Centre for Development Studies (NCDS), Bhubaneswar, an Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) institute. He researches and teaches on development-related issues that intertwine between social philosophy, analytical measurement, and applied development. At NCDs, he was instrumental in spearheading the Odisha Millets Mission that brought together the Government, civil society, and Academia for a pro-people action research initiative, which has important lessons leading to the International Year of Millets 2023. His work on cyclone Fani dealt with macroeconomic and human impact that has important methodological and policy implications. His work on farmers' suicides in Maharashtra led to the setting-up of the Vasantrao Naik Kshetkari Swabhilambhan Mission and other policy outcomes. Some of his publications are on agrarian issues, measurement of development indicators, and poverty among others.  He has been a Guest Scholar at Meiji University, Japan; ICCR Chair Professor of Indian Studies at the National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan; and Subir Chowdhury Fellow on Quality and Economics, at the London School of Economics and Political Science.