Webinar: Small Millets - A Toolkit of the New Green Revolution

Overview

As climate-resilient crops, millets are becoming popular around the world due to their health and other benefits. In appreciation of their importance and potential for global food security and nutrition, the United Nations declared 2023 the International Year of Millets.

Small millets merit special attention as they have a variety of nutritional and other qualities. For instance, they are ideal for climate change adaption strategies and can be used as food and fodder.

The six most significant small millets are finger millet, foxtail millet, kodo millet, little millet, proso millet, and barnyard millet. India is a major producer of millets globally; the country produces 15.53 million tonnes with yields reaching 1,237 kg/ha.

In the face of climate change and other challenges to global food security and nutrition, small millets can become a useful tool in the arsenal of climate change adaptation and mitigation resources.

Objective

Over more than two decades, ICBA has been at the forefront of research and development on stress-resistant crops that are suited to marginal environments affected by a range of factors such as soil and water salinization, water scarcity, and land degradation. The center has identified, tested, and introduced a variety of stress-resistant crops like quinoa, sorghum, pearl millet, and Salicornia in different locations.

In line with the theme of the Year of Sustainability in the UAE “Today for Tomorrow”, COP28 and the International Year of Millets, ICBA will organize a series of events throughout 2023 under the theme “Climate-resilient Crops of Tomorrow”.

This webinar is one of such events dedicated to raising awareness about small millets. In particular the webinar will discuss phylogeny of millets, nutritional composition, germplasm resources, and breeding methods of small millets. It will also cover such topics as processing of small millets and value addition.

Speakers

The main speaker for this webinar will be:

• Dr. Vanniarajan C., Millet Breeder and Dean, Anbil Dharmalingam Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India