Figure: Millets were a staple for Indians for centuries. Photo: L Vidyasagar, ICRISAT.

During my childhood visits to my ancestral home in rural Uttar Pradesh in northern India, I would often find my grandmother eating roti – flat bread – made with pearl millets or sorghum.

She would mix the flour with water, take a chunk of the dough and beat it between her palms to make a big flat disc and then cook it on the wood-fired clay oven.

If she offered it to me, I’d turn my nose up. I couldn’t comprehend why she’d choose them over thinner, tastier, easier-to-eat wheat rotis.

But a few years back, I switched to the food my grandma ate.

I replaced wheat flour in my kitchen with flour made from pearl millets after I saw a report that said that the latter were healthier.

Even though my roti is now more chewy, I’ve stuck to it because it makes me feel healthier.

And I’m not alone – agriculture experts say in recent years, many “forgotten foods” are making a comeback in the farms and fields and also on our plates.

For a while now, there has been “a concerted global effort” to help millets shed their “forgotten” tag, says Dr Jacqueline Hughes, Director General of non-profit ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics).

India celebrated 2018 as Year of Millets and in March, the United Nations accepted Delhi’s proposal to celebrate 2023 as the International Year of Millets.

Reports say the year would be used to raise awareness about the health benefits of millets and their suitability for cultivation – they can grow in degraded soil and need little pesticide – at a time when the world is confronted with the spectre of global warming.

See: https://www.icrisat.org/why-i-switched-to-eating-grandmas-food/