Revitalizing Millets in India: Production, Consumption, Policies and Future Prospects

Abstract

Millets have returned to the centre of Indian food and agricultural policy after decades in which rice- and wheat-centred production, procurement and consumption systems displaced them from farms and diets. This critical narrative review examines whether the current revival can progress from symbolic promotion to a durable food-system transition. Literature published mainly from 2000 to 30 May 2026 was identified through PubMed, PubMed Central, the Directory of Open Access Journals, AGRIS, ICAR repositories, DOI and bibliographic searches, citation chasing, and official Indian and intergovernmental sources. Evidence was appraised for design quality, geographical scope, measurement validity, causal strength and policy relevance. India’s long-run millet trajectory is characterised by a sharp contraction in cultivated area, substantial yield growth and comparatively stable aggregate output, with large differences among pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet and small millets. Stress tolerance and lower irrigation dependence create genuine advantages in many rainfed environments, but these are conditional on genotype, soil, rainfall, management, labour and market access; resilience does not by itself make millet cultivation remunerative. Consumption evidence shows renewed urban and health-oriented interest, yet regular use remains constrained by convenience, taste, price, processing losses, household food habits and weak availability. Nutritional composition and several intervention studies support the value of selected millet foods and biofortified pearl millet, while broad therapeutic claims are weakened by heterogeneous products, short trials and analytical limitations. India’s policy architecture now spans research, minimum support prices, procurement, public distribution, processing incentives, export promotion and state missions. The strongest implementation lessons come from locally embedded, end-to-end programmes that connect seed, agronomy, processing, procurement and public meals; nevertheless, robust counterfactual evaluations remain scarce. A credible revitalisation strategy therefore requires regionally differentiated production support, demand creation through acceptable foods, decentralised processing, reliable quality standards, nutrition-sensitive procurement and transparent outcome monitoring. Millets should complement rather than simply replace major cereals, with policy success judged by farmer profitability, dietary use, ecological performance and equity rather than production or publicity alone.