Mainstreaming orphan millets for advancing climate smart agriculture to secure nutrition and health

Abstract

The ever-changing climate and the current COVID-19 pandemic compound the problems and seriously impact agriculture production, resulting in socio-economic insecurities and imposing health implications globally. Most of the poor and malnourished population in the developing countries depends on agriculture for food, income, and employment. Impact of climate change together with the COVID-19 outbreak revealed immense problems highlighting the importance of mainstreaming climate-resilient and low input crops with more contemporary agriculture practices. Orphan millets play a vital role in the poor and malnourished population's livelihood, food and nutrition security. Recognizing their unique potential, the United Nations-Food and Agriculture Organization has announced the year 2023 as the “International Year of Millets”. However, despite the unique properties for present and future agriculture of orphan millets, their cultivation is declining in many countries. As a result, millets have gained attention from researchers which eventually decelerated “multi-omics” resource generation. This review summarizes the benefits of millets and major barriers/ bottlenecks in their improvement. We also discuss the pre- and post-harvest technologies; policies required to introduce and establish millets in mainstream agriculture. To improve and ensure the livelihood of the poor/malnourished population, intensive efforts are urgently needed in advancing the research and development, implementing pre- and post-harvest technological intervention strategies, and making favorable policies for orphan crops to accomplish food and nutrition security. National and international collaborations are also indispensable to address the uncertain effects of climate change and COVID-19.

Effect of nutrition education on knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of the tribal and urban respondents on millet consumption

“…Millet cultivation has declined over the years and is a major concern for researchers. Intensive advancement is needed, and favorable policies are also required with collective collaborations to address the adverse effects on environment and unexpected pandemics (Babele et al, 2022). Additionally, effort for cultivation, it is equally critical to increase awareness of consumption-and demand-driven marketing.…”

Reorienting research investments toward under‐researched crops for sustainable food systems

“…The high research outputs recorded for cereals (maize), as shown in Table 1, were an indication of more research investment in the crop compared to other crops such as vegetables, roots and tuber, nuts, and legumes, demonstrating low crop diversity. This can be attributed to the fact that for a long time, research investments have focused on of maize, wheat, and rice (Babele et al, 2022;Lynam et al, 2016;Munialo et al, 2023). Many investments, especially in seed production, are focused on staples and exports, leaving behind indigenous crops (Keatinge et al, 2015).…”

Genetic and genomic interventions in crop biofortification: Examples in millets

“…An extraneous group of forage grasses that produce small-sized grains are referred to as “millets.” Millets provide a rich source of nutrition, show minimum vulnerability to pathogens, and are tolerant to abiotic factors including drought and salinity ( Muthamilarasan et al., 2016 ; Govindaraj et al., 2020 ; Vetriventhan et al., 2020 ; Babele et al., 2022 ). As a result, millets serve as ideal staple crops for the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa.…”