Green revolution, Diabetes, Malnutrition in India: Part 2

Please read Part 1 here...

4. Growth of Millets, Rice, Wheat post Green Revolution:

Image Courtesy: Millets Network of India

It is clear that Green revolution which promoted Rice and Wheat resulted in 125% cumulative growth for Rice in 40 years and an astonishing 285% for wheat over the same period. But lets look at Millets which has declined 2.4% over the same period.

5. Demerits of this strategy:

Lets look at the demerits of this strategy:

1. Please read as to why Millets are miracle grains / gods own crops.. here.

2. Millets do not require huge amounts of water and irrigation. In fact some of the millets requires less than 25% of rainfall requirements than Rice and Sugarcane.

3. Because of less irrigation requirements they also don't require too much power either.

4. Millets can grow on poor soil and dry lands and most importantly 60% of India's agricultural land is rain fed hence more suited to grow Millets.

5. Millets can ensure not just food security for human but also for cattle and the entire agricultural chain.

6. Millets are more nutritious, less expensive and suits Indian agricultural environment - which can be grown all through the year and is not seasonal. Read it here.

More importantly it has low Glycemic Index which in my opinion is the primary reason for high % of diabetes in India. So the prime demerit and tragedy of Green revolution is it ignored Millets and favored Rice and Wheat.

This rubs in hard since Millets were among the staple diet for most of the Indians which was ignored for no obvious reasons.

Summary:

So i am going to conclude with just few questions for which i don't have any answers but i leave it to you to search for the answers if you are interested:

1. If Millets provide more nutrition than Rice and Wheat then why should the government not promote this as our staple diet?

2. Sugar cane needs approximately 7 times more water than some of the Millets. With so much water scarcity why cannot the government promote more of Millets growing than Sugar Cane?

3. If global warming is a reality and if the temperature increases by 2-3% then it is said that Wheat as a crop would disappear from the face of earth. What is the government doing to de-risk our lives from this possible disaster?

4. If global warming is a reality then water as a resource would be more and more scarce, If so how our government is planning to keep up the rice and sugar cane productivity which requires standing water? Why should the subsidies be directed at them in a major way?

5. If the Glycemic Index is low for Millets then it can prevent onset of Diabetes at a very young age. Why cannot health care industry promote Millets as staple diet?

6. 11% of Indians are understandably suffering from over nutrition which is because of high calorie intake. Why can't the easiest solution to obesity be told as switching from Rice / Wheat to Millets?

7. If the Millets are pest resistant then it does not require fertilizers and its associated subsidies and health problems. If some thing is so organic, nutritious, inexpensive and natural then why cannot government promote this?

8. If Millets provide food security for the entire agricultural chain and not just for Human beings then why would Indian government allow a reduction in cultivation for such miracle grains?

While the green revolution was conceived with all the noble intentions and it has produced desirable results for its plan, i contend we should also include Millets in this plan and help Indians build a healthy and secured India. Its still not late but would it reach the right ears?

Article by Rags Gopalan...