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By: Jatinder Kaur and Kuldeep Kaur
Babbar Akali Memorial Khalsa College, Garhshankar, Punjab, India
In the twenty-first century, agriculture and food security face numerous obstacles due to factors like population increase, urbanization, water scarcity, rising food prices, and global warming. To address this issue and eliminate hunger and poverty, it is essential for researchers to explore alternative food sources, from production to consumption. Cereal grains are fundamental to human diets and play a key role in food security. Therefore, reforming the food system is important to ensuring both food and nutritional security. A practical approach to this goal involves ensuring widespread access to affordable, nutritious, and wholesome food by promoting millets – nutrient-rich grains (often called Nutri-cereals). Once staple crops in many regions of the world, millets are now gaining renewed attention due to their exceptional nutritional profile, environmental sustainability, and adaptability to changing climates. This paper explores the potential of millets as a key food of the future, highlighting their nutritional benefits, ecological advantages, socio-economic impact, and potential for global food systems. It also discusses the challenges associated with scaling millet production and consumption, along with the opportunities for future growth and development in this sector.
Citation:
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