Grain millet: Potential to fill nutrition gaps in the context of food security and climate change

Abstract

Climate change has raised geopolitical concerns of food and nutritional security in term of changing crop production system and dietary patterns. Low productivity of the conventional varieties and increased susceptibility to pathogenic and pest attacks in the genetically modified varieties forced the nations to shift towards climate resilient crops. Millets offer the features that make them next generation staple foods of developing countries including Asia and Africa. Millets are C4 crops having efficient nutrient utilization and short crop maturation duration. Millets are the plentiful and diversified sources of carbohydrates, dietary fibers, proteins, calcium and other nutrients. Contrarily to their significance in existing climate linked food security challenges, millets are underutilized due to low production statistics and the presence of anti-nutritional factors like phytic acid and tannins. Millets offer several health benefits i.e., higher fiber contents of millets make them good laxatives and reduce the risks of gallstones development and alleviate issues including constipation, bloating, cramping and other issues of lower gastrointestinal tract. The fermentable dietary fibers of millet may also serve as prebiotic thus promoting probiotics growth and help eliminating pathogenic strains from the colon. Unsaturated fatty acids like linoleic and oleic (50-60%) increase the level of HDL cholesterol and are associated with improved cardiovascular health. Glutamic acid a non-essential amino acid in millet is the precursor of gamma-aminobutyric acid and can prevent nerve excitability and reduced neural activity thus managing the health of the nervous system. There is a need to promote millets production as a climate resilient food crop and enhance their industrial utilization for development of cost effective, safer and nutritious food formulations.