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We in the
MINI, Millet Network of India, do not see millets just as
crops. For us millet is a concept embedded in our people’s
food cultures, agricultural practices and above all its
ability to help the millet farmer make her / his
agriculture autonomous. The remarkable possibility that
millet offers for an internal input based farming, free
from chemicals and corporates make them the new age answer
to a new age crisis. Through their versatility, millet
show us the way out of the web of disaster we have woven
around our food and farming future.
Our current development discourse is riddled with a series
of insecurities. We truly believe that the damage done in
the name of ‘farming advances’ can be repaired only by
handing the leadership to farmers, women and the excluded
who through their awesome knowledge of farming and nature
can bring back sanity to our development thinking. It is
against background that we must notice the eminent role
millets can play in reinvigorating the agriculture sector.
Food, farming water, energy, climate change --- name the
crisis, and test the resourcefulness of millets to respond
to it – you will be in for a revelation. One just wonders
why our development thinkers and policy planners failed to
notice the awesome range of millet magic!
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