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.

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1. Borah A, Das H, Das S, Bahadur R. Millet: “The Grain of Tomorrow”. 2023;2:08–12.
2. Millets for food security and sustainable agriculture. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2021.
3. Hu F, Qiu L, Wei S, Zhou H, Bathuure IA, Hu H. The spatiotemporal evolution of global innovation networks and the changing position of China: a social network analysis based on cooperative patents. R&D Manag. 2024;54(3):574–589.
4. Nithiyanantham S, Kalaiselvi P, Mahomoodally MF, Zengin G, Abirami A, Srinivasan G. Nutritional and functional roles of millets-a review. J Food Biochem. 2019;43:e12859.
5. Ramashia SE. Physical, functional and nutritional properties of flours from finger millet (Eleusine coracana) varieties fortified with vitamin B2 and zinc oxide [PhD thesis]. Thohoyandou: University of Venda; 2018.
6. Shivran AC. Biofortification for nutrient-rich millets. In: Singh U, Praharaj CS, Singh SS, Singh NP, editors. Biofortification of food crops. New Delhi: Springer; 2016. 409–410.
7. Kheya SA, Talukder SK, Datta P, Yeasmin S, Rashid MH, Hasan AK, Anwar MP, Islam AA, Islam AM. Millets: The future crops for the tropics—status, challenges and future prospects. Heliyon. 2023.
8. Gowda KR, Agrawal C, Gulati U. Millets! A way to good health and well-being among Gen Z. In: Millets: The multi-cereal paradigm for food sustainability. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland; 2024. pp. 315–325.
9. Kumar A, Gera K. Role of traditional food grains Shri Anna (Millets) in the context of the UN-sustainable development goals (SDG): A review. Res Jr Agril Sci. 2024;15(4):998–1001.
10. Laishram B, Dutta R, Devi OR, Ngairangbam H. Importance of millets for food and nutritional security in the context of climate-resilient agriculture. Adv Agron. 2023;1.
11. Kumar A, Tripathi MK, Joshi D, Kumar V. Millets and Millet Technology. Singapore: Springer; 2021.

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.

🔒 This is a subscription article

Full text is available to subscribers and institutional members. Please choose an option below to access it.

1. Borah A, Das H, Das S, Bahadur R. Millet: “The Grain of Tomorrow”. 2023;2:08–12.
2. Millets for food security and sustainable agriculture. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2021.
3. Hu F, Qiu L, Wei S, Zhou H, Bathuure IA, Hu H. The spatiotemporal evolution of global innovation networks and the changing position of China: a social network analysis based on cooperative patents. R&D Manag. 2024;54(3):574–589.
4. Nithiyanantham S, Kalaiselvi P, Mahomoodally MF, Zengin G, Abirami A, Srinivasan G. Nutritional and functional roles of millets-a review. J Food Biochem. 2019;43:e12859.
5. Ramashia SE. Physical, functional and nutritional properties of flours from finger millet (Eleusine coracana) varieties fortified with vitamin B2 and zinc oxide [PhD thesis]. Thohoyandou: University of Venda; 2018.
6. Shivran AC. Biofortification for nutrient-rich millets. In: Singh U, Praharaj CS, Singh SS, Singh NP, editors. Biofortification of food crops. New Delhi: Springer; 2016. 409–410.
7. Kheya SA, Talukder SK, Datta P, Yeasmin S, Rashid MH, Hasan AK, Anwar MP, Islam AA, Islam AM. Millets: The future crops for the tropics—status, challenges and future prospects. Heliyon. 2023.
8. Gowda KR, Agrawal C, Gulati U. Millets! A way to good health and well-being among Gen Z. In: Millets: The multi-cereal paradigm for food sustainability. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland; 2024. pp. 315–325.
9. Kumar A, Gera K. Role of traditional food grains Shri Anna (Millets) in the context of the UN-sustainable development goals (SDG): A review. Res Jr Agril Sci. 2024;15(4):998–1001.
10. Laishram B, Dutta R, Devi OR, Ngairangbam H. Importance of millets for food and nutritional security in the context of climate-resilient agriculture. Adv Agron. 2023;1.
11. Kumar A, Tripathi MK, Joshi D, Kumar V. Millets and Millet Technology. Singapore: Springer; 2021.