In Peeliya village, around two km off the main road in Bassi tehsil of Jaipur district, lies a 27-bigha (about 17-acre) farmland – roughly the size of Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy cricket stadium. The owner Kajodmal Sharma guides me through a mud-soaked trail, now slick and treacherous after a day of heavy rain, moving with the familiarity that comes with knowing every inch of the land.

"I grow bajra (pearl millet) on this [six-acre] part of my land," says Sharma, one of many farmers who grow the crop in Rajasthan, the highest millet producing state in India with a share of more than 30 percent of the country’s production of millets--a category that includes bajra, jowar, ragi, kodo and other crops.

Pearl millet and sorghum (jowar) are the main millet crops produced in the state. Rajasthan is the leading producer of bajra in India, contributing 4.3 million tonnes to the country's total production of 9.5 million tonnes in 2023-24.

Sharma grows some 35 quintal bajra in the summer (a quintal is 100 kg), and sells it at Rs 1,700 per quintal to a private middle-man, who then sells it to a trader, who in turn processes it and sells it onwards to prepare it for the urban market.

Millets are hardy grains suitable for semi-arid conditions, making them the perfect crop for areas where water management is a concern, as IndiaSpend reported in December 2022. Most varieties contain more protein than rice, and they are superior to both rice and wheat in terms of iron content.

Millets have been a staple in India’s diet since ancient times. Nearly seven decades ago, it was among the country’s most widely grown crops. With the advent of the Green Revolution in the 1960s, India had a surplus of wheat and rice, overshadowing millets and pushing them into obscurity.

Consumption of pearl millet or bajra fell by 67 percent in urban and 59 percent in rural areas between 1972-73 and 2004-05, we had reported. Another study estimates that maize and millets like jowar, bajra, and ragi went from contributing 23 percent of the cereal requirements of Indians in 1983 to six percent in 2011.

Recognising the potential of these coarse grains to address nutritional challenges, the Indian government rebranded millets as ‘Nutri Cereals’ and declared 2018 as the National Year of Millets.

Building on this momentum, the United Nations designated 2023 as the International Year of Millets based on India’s proposal. This marked the rise of India's millet push, aimed to enhance production, productivity, consumption and export, strengthen value chains, branding, and create awareness for health benefits of millets.

“I acknowledge with pride the huge service done by small farmers in contributing to the health of fellow citizens by growing these ‘Shree Anna’ [millets],” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her 2023 budget speech.

Government efforts at promoting millets’ nutritive value led to a surge in the market for millets, which in turn spurred private sector entry with numerous start-ups and other stakeholders rushing into the millet space. However, not much has changed for farmers like Sharma.

“For a long time, I have got returns of Rs 1,700 per quintal for bajra, and this has not changed even last year,” says Sharma, who has still not been able to sell his produce at the government’s minimum support price.

“They have declared MSP, but it's not working here,” he says.

In June 2024, the union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the MSP for all mandated kharif crops for the marketing season 2024-25. For bajra, the MSP was pegged at Rs 2,625 per quintal, 54 percent more than Sharma’s earnings and an increase of Rs 125 since the previous year.

Lallu Lal, another farmer in Peeliya village, explains that they grow fewer millets and focus more on vegetables and other crops because these sell quickly and provide a better income. He points out that if they only cultivated millets, it would be difficult to make a living since there is little demand for it. When they take bajra to the mandi, the price remains consistently low, making it unprofitable.

“Sirf bajra ugaaenge toh khaaenge kya, lene wala kon hai yahaan? [What will we eat if we just grow bajra; who will buy it?]” he asks. His words are echoed by other farmers who grow millets, and find it unprofitable.

IndiaSpend has reached out to Rajasthan’s agriculture department, and Ashutosh Joshi, executive director, Food Corporation of India, for comment on the status of public procurement of millets in Rajasthan and other states. We will update this story when we receive a response.

Why are millets expensive in urban India?

Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are the major millet growing states in India. Farm communities that once relied on millets as a staple food favoured wheat and rice, which became readily available at affordable prices.

Though millet farmers occasionally consume millet at home, the larger farmers sell most of their crop. When this resilient crop which requires minimal water and is easy to grow reaches the market as a packaged product, it becomes expensive.

For example, a 70-gram packet of maida noodles costs Rs 14, a 75-gram packet of wheat noodles is priced at Rs 26, while a 57-gram packet of millet noodles costs Rs 35.

So, what drives up the cost of this once-humble grain when it reaches urban shelves?

"Millets are costly due to processing, transport, and value addition before reaching the market,” says Girish Khandelwal, a Jaipur-based trader who sits at the mandi in Bassi tehsil. He purchases jowar and bajra from the farmers in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

He works with Vinod Khandelwal, another trader who also doubles up as a middleman (arthiya). Their mandi houses a millet-processing machine, allowing Girish to trade processed millets to start-ups, multinational companies, and medium to large urban businesses that later use them to produce millet-based products for the urban market.

“The whole thing is actually much more complex than what it appears to be,” says Shalander Kumar, scientist and deputy director of the global research programme on enabling systems transformation at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

“In urban India, there isn’t a significant number of people consistently eating millet,” Kumar points out. “People might eat it today but then skip it for 15 days, or eat some millet products occasionally. The demand is inconsistent. And since demand is inconsistent, there’s more risk for value chain actors. To offset that risk, they keep the margins high.”

Kumar, who is also the cluster leader for markets, institutions and policies at ICRISAT, explains that broken value chains and inconsistent demand make it difficult for consumers to find millet products and discourage investment. As a result, small businesses and start-ups struggle to succeed in the millet sector.

Kumar, who lives in Hyderabad, highlights that wheat flour coming from north India to Hyderabad costs around Rs 22-23 per kg at the farm level, but is sold for around Rs 55 per kg in the city. In contrast, locally produced sorghum fetches farmers around Rs 18-23 per kg; yet it is sold for Rs 100 per kg. Despite being grown nearby, the price difference is significant. He further points out that although there is increasing discussion about millets in urban India, they have not yet become a regular part of people’s diets.

Rajeev Pandey, co-founder of Noida-based start-up Millets for Health, says, “Many people don’t realise that a significant portion of millet is lost during processing, which increases costs.” The loss during dehulling is four times higher for millets than for rice.

Dayakar Rao B., principal scientist at the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR), emphasises that there needs to be a rise in rural consumption. "IIMR is enhancing the machinery to boost processing efficiency from 70 percent to 80-90 percent, collaborating with engineering institutes to develop better equipment.

“High consumer prices for millets result from technological gaps and inefficient processing,” he adds. “Improving machinery and techniques is crucial for reducing costs and increasing farmer profitability.”

IndiaSpend has reached out to Minhaj Alam, additional secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, for comment on initiatives to help with processing and reducing these costs. We will update this story when we receive a response.

Who reaps the benefits?

Pandey co-founded Millets for Health in 2016, pre-dating the surge in millet-related buzz. He founded a farmers’ collective called ‘Shodh’ in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh which was then severely hit by farm distress. Shodh started by encouraging the farmers to grow millets, which required less water to grow. He started with five farmers and now works with more than 15,000 farmers in the district.

“Nobody in this value chain is actually making a lot of money,” says Pandey. “We don’t produce any of our products on a huge scale because demand is inconsistent.”

Millets for Health saw an almost 100 percent spike in sales in 2023 when the International Year of Millets was announced. But this year, things have slowed down again.

“We don’t want to purchase expensive machinery, pay rentals and keep more labour when we know we can simply outsource,” Pandey says. He is just about able to sustain his business, keep operations going and pay his employees. “We are break-even, you can say.“

Kumar from ICRISAT explains that many start-ups have entered the market, but only a few have been truly successful. “The main issue is the inconsistent demand, which creates more risk for value chain actors investing in it,” he says.

While Pandey says that every step of the value chain adds expenses, Kumar observes that many industry players intentionally focus on capturing the high consumer surplus by catering exclusively to health-conscious, wealthy consumers. They aim to keep margins high by targeting a small segment – about 2-3 percent – who are willing to pay more for health benefits. This strategy allows them to sustain profits with lower volumes.

“Money is not really reaching the farmers in most cases,” says Kumar.

Harshita Agrawal, founder of The Tasty Millets, a Jaipur-based start-up, says that millets need specialised processing machines, which are costly. There is also the issue of a short shelf life due to the presence of an active enzyme called lipase. By producing rancidity and off-odours, this enzyme activity shortens the shelf life of millets.

When packaging, branding and other value additions are made, prices naturally go up. “We have to spend money at every step of the value chain,” says Agrawal.

Start-ups typically sell their products through their own websites, e-commerce platforms, or offline stores.

“Retailers like D’Mart or platforms like Amazon often ask for 40-50 percent margins,” Kumar says. “If small producers don’t have direct market linkages, they’re forced to give in to these demands. These platforms are making higher margins than anyone else in the value chain.”

In 2021, the ICAR-IIMR in Hyderabad released a Compendium of Millet Startups Success Stories’ featuring several millet-based startups across the country. IndiaSpend attempted to contact two Jaipur-based startups from that list: DOS and Company and Boutique Foods. However, both businesses have ceased operations entirely, the founders of these companies told us.

The Indian government attempted to boost millets through initiatives like the Global Millets Conference and the Millets Experience Centre at Dilli Haat in New Delhi. These efforts aimed to increase demand and support startups in the millet sector during the International Year of Millets 2023 and India’s G20 presidency.

The promise of collectivism

To support small and marginal farmers, the Union government helped set up farmer producer organisations (FPOs), which the IIMR helps monitor. FPOs bring farmers together to collectively purchase inputs, access markets, and sell produce in bulk, reducing intermediaries and enabling better prices. By pooling resources, FPOs empower small farmers to secure more favourable deals and improve incomes while tackling challenges collectively.

Rao from IIMR says, “Smallholder farmers primarily grow millets for their consumption and lack access to emerging markets.

“IIMR is focusing on establishing FPOs to support smallholder farmers through vertical integration, value addition, and market access,” he says.

Two years back, Nanchhi Lal, a farmer in Mansa Rampura village of Jaipur district, registered an FPO by the name of Shiv Dhara Agro Farmer Producer Company Limited, but has not been able to start operations in millets.

“We were never told what and how to actually run the FPO,” he says. Lal says that the scheme can benefit millet farmers in his region; he wants to purchase millets and market millet products, but has received no guidance. “Some monitoring companies came initially, but later it all looked like a formality, there was no monitoring,” Lal says.

IndiaSpend has reached out to Devesh Chaturvedi, secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, to inquire about steps being taken to support FPOs. We will update the story when we receive a response.

Lal’s FPO deals in seeds and fertilisers, but it has never dealt in millets in the last two years. “Only a few FPOs may be working, but most of them are not functional.”

IndiaSpend called five FPO owners in Jaipur, most of whom have either shut operations or are not dealing in millets.

Issues with public procurement

Experts highlight that with growing urban demand and government initiatives aimed at promoting millet production through better price assurance, it is crucial to keep these grains accessible to low-income households.

Millets, because of their higher iron, calcium and overall mineral content to wheat and rice, hold the potential to help address India’s malnutrition problem, as IndiaSpend reported in August 2016.

More than half of India’s women and children, and one in five men are anaemic. Their loss of productivity shaved $22.64 billion (Rs 1.5 lakh crore) off India’s gross domestic product in 2016, more than three times the health budget for 2017-18, IndiaSpend reported in November 2017.

Malnutrition is also implicated in India’s growing tide of diabetes, we reported in December 2015. Diabetes is now affecting the urban poor as well as the affluent.

As millet prices rise, one strategy for ensuring widespread availability is to increase their distribution through the Public Distribution System (PDS). But the share of millets in India’s PDS is low.

Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013, the government provides more than 800 million people with subsidised food grains like rice, wheat, or coarse cereal. For 2023-24, for PDS and other welfare schemes, the government had allocated 41.2 million tonnes of rice, 18.6 million tonnes of wheat, and 953,000 tonnes of nutri-cereals. This is also reflected in the area under cultivation and procurement.

During 2023-24, the area under cultivation for rice was 47.6 million hectares and for wheat was 31.2 million hectares. In comparison, the area was 7.4 million hectares for bajra and 4 million hectares for jowar.

Similarly, by December 2023, the government procured 36.6 million tonnes of paddy and 26.2 million tonnes of wheat. That same year, 743,000 tonnes of bajra and 163,000 tonnes of jowar was procured.

Om Prakash Khedar, scientist at the Directorate of Millets Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare) in Jaipur, says, "Millets currently make up only about five percent of the staple food in our country. If we could increase this to 20 percent, it would create a consistent and robust demand for millets.”

He explains that farmers are struggling with low procurement and prices for millets compared to staples like wheat and rice.

Khedar notes that the government procures wheat and rice to maintain a buffer stock of 30-40 million tonnes annually. This stock is essential to distribute grains to 800 million people every month, ensuring a consistent food supply. Due to this system, the Food Corporation of India continuously buys rice and wheat from farmers, creating a reliable supply chain and a compulsory demand for these staples.

“MSP is declared by the government, but there is little to no purchasing of millets,” he says. “What will the government do with that procurement--if there is no supply chain, where will it be used?

”Effective policy integration is crucial for creating a stable market for millets,” says Khedar.

Way forward

Odisha Millets Mission is one of the first initiatives to focus on the comprehensive revival of millets across the value chain. It was the first initiative of the state’s Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment to explicitly focus on the increase in consumption of millets.

"As part of the Odisha millet mission, we have focused on increasing millet consumption both at the local and urban levels,” Arabinda Kumar Padhee, principal secretary of the state’s Department of Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment, told IndiaSpend in a written response.

“Finger millet (ragi) occupies around 74 percent of the gross millet area,” Padhee noted. “Most of the finger millet produced in Odisha is either consumed locally or marketed through ragi procurement at the Minimum Support Price.

“Procurement of finger millet has risen from 0.17 lakh quintals [17,000] in 2018-19 to 4.5 lakh [450,000] quintals in 2023-24, ensuring its utilization in PDS and supplementary nutrition programs,” he adds. He said that the government of Odisha is now promoting millet service centres for marketing millets through private players by providing end-to-end services for farmers.

“We are hoping this initiative will further bridge the gap in the millet value chain,” he adds.

Promoting millet consumption for nutritional security is one of the objectives of the IIMR. “For this goal, it’s important that farmers can access these grains,” Rao says, noting that FPOs will need time to learn millet processing and machinery, but success depends on better organisation, farmers’ awareness, and a strong supply chain.

This report has been republished with permission from IndiaSpend, a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit.

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