Why Milets? Why now
Millets has been an integral part of Indian society from the beginning. Wheat and rice were a part of Indian society where there was abundance of water in places near the riverbanks. But millets were the common day food that was used.But then we moved away from millets and moved towards rice and wheat based society but now we are again revisiting our roots from where we have started.
Now, you all will not believe that when you are choosing millets, you are not only choosing your health but you are also contributing to our planet Earth. Why am I saying this? See millets uses 5-10 times less water to grow in comparison to rice and wheat, therefore When you are choosing Milets, you are also showing your environment-saving consciousness.
The millets also have a low glycemic index that helps slow the glucose release, making it very much ideal for pre-diabetics and type 2 diabetes. It also has a lot of magnesium and potassium and other minerals that act as a way of improving your health. When we are choosing millets, we are not just choosing what is better for our earth, but also what is better for us to exist for our health. Just like no amount of money spent can create another, similarly no amount of money spent cannot create another body. So you are making one ideal choice for two of the most important goals that you should be having.
Milets – the backbone of future Indian economy.
First of all, you know that even today, 50% of India is dependent on agriculture. How this millets would help?
we have already understood that it requires 50-70% less water. Also, you need to understand that for a farmer, it loads the chemical fertilizers because it is a minimal need for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and other insecticides that we require.
Okay, also, it is tolerant to the climate of India. As you know, ancient India was completely dependent on millets.
So, when we go back to our question, it is not only helping us as a society and as an individual health, but also to our economy, because the cost for the farmers could be reducing. As well as for the long-term perspective, it helps improving the soil health.
Because it has deep roots that prevents soil erosion and later helps in increasing the organic matter in soil. Also, it is not that much labor-intensive, so fewer people can do this. And also, the rest of the people put them into secondary processes, like to create something from millets or other sectors of the Indian economy.
So, it would help us. This is why it millets and why now?
Now, we will also understand one key thing: it also helps give an economical benefit by reducing our import pressure and giving us an export benefit.
As such, in the early times, we were an agriculture import-dependent country. But due to the sudden change made by the government, today India is a self-sufficient and export-oriented agricultural exporting country.
The same thing if Milets would be done, it would help us because, see, in the future, reducing water is an issue, and Milets provide us an edge there. It provides our farmers very good opportunities to grow, as well as it gives us one more thing that is of much more importance: that we become more independent and will not depend on exports from other countries.
We will be exporting Millets, and that would help because of less water requirment.
An opportunity to become an import-independent country, but also help us make our village economy stronger, reduce the requirement of water in agriculture, and help us maintain our health. If the right set of actions are taken, and we as consumers make a good choice, then we will become millets capitel of world rather than Diabetics capital of the world.