The International Year of Millet 2023: A Global Initiative for Sustainable Food Security and Nutrition

Abstract

Millets, known for their resilience and nutritional richness, have been recognized globally for their potential in enhancing food security and nutrition. This review paper highlights the significance of the International Year of Millets 2023, a global initiative emphasizing the role of millets in sustainable agriculture, food security, and nutrition. We provide an overview of millets, their classification, nutritional profiles, and global distribution. Millets demonstrate remarkable adaptability to diverse and challenging climatic conditions, contributing to biodiversity and offering ecological benefits. This makes them a significant part of climate-smart agriculture. Millets enhance food availability and positively impact rural livelihoods and economies, contributing to food security. Our review underscores the superior nutritional content of millets in comparison to other major cereals. We shed light on health benefits associated with millet consumption, emphasizing their role in addressing hidden hunger and malnutrition. Despite these benefits, millets face barriers in cultural acceptance and require improved processing techniques. Technological innovations could help in improving processing, creating value-added millet products, while effective marketing strategies could help in overcoming social and cultural barriers. Lastly, we discuss policy initiatives supporting millet cultivation and consumption, particularly reflecting on initiatives during the International Year of Millets 2023. Future policy recommendations for sustained millet promotion are proposed, which include promoting millets as climate-smart crops, improving farmers' access to improved millet varieties and technologies, fostering an environment for millet processing and marketing, and promoting international collaboration for millet research and development.