Global food insecurity: Nigeria, India move to increase millet production

By Joy Obakeye

Nigeria and India have unveiled advanced millet producing strategy and advocacy to increase millet production to tackle the looming global food insecurity and improving nutritional values.

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Gangadharan Balasubramanian and Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammed Abubakar, disclosed this during the commemoration of the International Year of Millet (IYM 2023) organised by the Indian High Commission, Abuja.

According to Balasubramanian, India has already taken innovative steps to increasing millet production and with close partnership with Nigeria.

“The International Year of Millet was proposed by the government of India at the United Nations, and I am very happy to say that Nigeria was one of the eight countries which have co-sponsored this resolution.

“Supported by 70 other people and subsequently was unanimously agreed by the United Nations to announce 2023 as the International Year of Millet.

“The government of India is very keen, is very conscious. We have a separate millet imitative that has started; various research programmes are going on, and various support systems are being put in place.

“Farmers are being taught, there are a lot of activities that are taking place in terms of improving and providing the millets to the general populations.

“Nigeria is one of the major five millet producing countries, and it is pertinent to note that India and Nigeria will come together in celebrating this.

“This cooking and food festival is only to showcase that it will be possible for us to have all the kinds of items that we consume daily which can be replaced by millets also,” Balasubramanian said.

On his part, Abubakar said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has been promoting millet production and value addition towards self-sufficiency and meeting industrial requirements in the country.

The Minister, represented by a Director in the Ministry, Abdullahi Abubakar, said all hands must be on deck for Nigeria to achieve the set goals.

“Presently, millet in Nigeria has not met the national demand and it is attributed to low productivity of the crop.

“Our national demand for millet as of 2022 was 6.4 million metric tons, while our national production is only two million metric tonnes”, Abubakar said.

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Also speaking, the Etsu Nupe, Yahaya Abubakar, said the event marked the beginning of a great journey between both countries to produce a crop which will be of immense benefit to humanity.

“I am sure this is just the beginning of our journey towards achieving our desired food security,” he said.