According to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country will lead the celebration of the International Millet Year 2023 and organize campaigns to promote the cultivation and consumption of nutritional cereals.
The PM’s message was conveyed at the opening ceremony for the International Year of Millet (IYM)—2023, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome.
The prime minister also complimented the UN for declaring 2023 the International Year of Millets and thanked the global community for supporting India’s proposal to mark the International Year of Millets.
Millets are good for the consumer, the cultivator, and the climate. Millets are nutritious and can be cultivated in semi-arid zones, besides consuming less water for irrigation. Nations need to collaborate to develop a sustainable future, and millets will play a pivotal role in the process. She said the IYM2023 will lead India towards food and nutritional security.
Millets are considered “smart foods” as they are easy to cultivate, mostly organic, and contain high nutritional value.
The IYM 2023 celebration is an opportunity for India to promote nutritional millets globally and place them on the world’s “food map.”
The Director General of FAO, Qu Dongyu, said the IYM 2023 will provide us with a unique opportunity to give visibility to crops that have great potential to strengthen global nutrition, food security, decent jobs, and economies, while accelerating climate action.
While the Union Minister of Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar, said the IYM 2023 will provide an opportunity to increase global production, improve processing efficiency, make better use of crop rotation, and promote millets as a major component of the food basket,
Led by the prime minister, the government of India sponsored the proposal for the International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023, which was accepted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The declaration has been instrumental in getting the government of India to be at the forefront of celebrating the IYM. Modi has also shared his vision to make IYM 2023 a ‘People’s Movement’ and position India as the ‘Global Hub for Millets’.