A millet popularisation workshop was hosted by the Caritas Institute of Developmental Action and Learning (CIDAL) with the support of Caritas Australia at Ranchi, Jharkhand, from June 13–15, 2023. The three-day workshop has sessions highlighting issues of millet promotion, practises, strategies, value chain development, health and nutritional aspects, and market linkages.

Dr. M.S. Yadav, retired Dean of Agriculture from Birsa Agriculture University, Ranchi, inaugurated and visited the millet exhibition pavilion. The pavilion highlights grains, products, and items prepared from millet.

The workshop holds importance as the United Nations has declared 2023 the International Year of Millets based on a recommendation from India. This calls for a higher level of responsibility to promote millet and bring it to the global platform as a solution to end hunger and address climate change.

The workshop gathered coordinators, animators, and farmers from 11 states in India to encourage others to cultivate and promote it. The sessions discussed millet, its necessity, nutritional values, disease resistance, and the new systems of government departments for sowing millets. Along with Dr. M.S. Yadav, Fr. Bipin Pani (Regional Forum Director, Jharkhand), Dr. Haridas VR (Lead: Climate Justice division of Caritas India), Ms. Sasmita Jena (State Head of Welthungerhilfe), Ms. Aruna Tirkey (Director and founder of Ajam Emba Pvt. Ltd.), and Ms. Anvita Surin, NABARD Regional Office, addressed the people with their learning and sharing.

Farmers displayed millet products, which were shared and exchanged with the farmers and other attendees. They also shared their knowledge of millet cultivation practises, the benefits of millet consumption, the challenges in the production process, and market linkages. The discussion moved to illustrate millet cultivation practises across the country; preservation of genetic diversity, land under millet cultivation, millet consumption, different recipes of millets, and challenges associated with cultivation were discussed among the participants.

The workshop sessions were moderated by Dr. Mukund Deshmukh, Mr. Prabal Sen, Mr. Dileesh, Dr. Haridas, and Mr. Pradipta on knowledge sharing, action plan for International Year of Millet, millet mapping, and learning, respectively.

It was a satisfactory workshop to discuss nutrition and branding, marketing, value addition, POP, millet mapping, and its action plan for developing a crystal-clear image for its cultivation. Dr. DK Sahi Dean (College of Agriculture, Birsa Agricultural Institute) provided an overview of the status of millet cultivation in India, and Mr. Prasanta Mohanty (Executive Director, Nirman Odisha) illustrated marketing strategies and linkages with local markets, businesses, and government schemes. Mr. Rajesh Jha (CWS) elucidated on value addition, branding, and marketing of millets. Mr. Mukund Deshmukh discussed the key learnings with the participants to encourage them to cultivate Bajra, Kodo, and Marwa in their plot. It was insisted on to motivate and share their learnings with other farmers on the vision of eating millets (that it is not the food of poor people but rather is for everyone).

One of the recommendations of the facilitators was to develop a common booklet on millet with details of all 42 millet varieties for its promotion. The suggestion was given to develop good marketing strategies based on the availability of millets’ seeds, the submission of a memorandum for inclusion of millets in PDS and Anganwadi, seed exchange, applications to be submitted in Gramme Sabha for popularising millets in the villages (processing units, different recipes), linkages, and networking with government departments.

The workshop concluded with action plan development by all participants, which included promotion and awareness of millets, cultivation practises of millets, value addition of millets, marketing strategies, linkage, and networking. The workshop concluded with final words from Dr. Haridas, who acknowledged the importance of conducting this workshop and also making Caritas the only organisation from the NGO sector to focus on millet and its promotion in support of our Indian government. The team appreciated the effort made by the Caritas India Jharkhand team, especially Mr. Nikhil and Erose, for organising it well.