The ever increasing trend of foreign fad foods like pizzas, burgers, tacos, etc. are demolishing our food heritage and increasing the demand of certain specific crops only, like wheat, rice, maize. Thus, indigenous species are largely being ignored and are left in oblivion. Millets is one of them. In spite of being highly nutritious, millets are not grown much by the farmers. The production of millets has fallen from 40% in 1950 to 20% today.
Millets like Rala (Foxtail Millet) has been ignored so much that many people don’t even know its name. This poses a direct threat of extinction and may also affect the biodiversity. Besides being highly nutritious than cereals like rice and wheat, Rala is a draught resistant and climate resilient fast growing crop which does not need fertilizers, pesticides or even soil preparation before sowing. It can be grown in semi arid and arid regions and still feels substantial produce with minimal input. Thus proving an exceptionally good crop for the farmers.
Hence, I took up the topic ‘Rala – A Forgotten Millet’ in order to study it and maybe make maximum people aware about the necessity to bring it back in our diet through my action research project.
Rutuja's Project on Foxtail Millet (Rala) 