India’s love-hate with millets in a big year, explained in charts

livemint.com:

Millets, once a staple in the Indian diet, are coming in vogue again thanks to growing consciousness about health and government campaigns. India wants to make itself a “global hub" of these grains, and the United Nations has declared 2023 the International Year of Millets to raise awareness. However, many Indians do not know much about various kinds of millets, and even if they do, they don’t necessarily consume them or even see themselves doing so in the near future, found a survey of 11,281 Indians conducted by Development Intelligence Unit, a collaboration between Sambodhi, a research group, and Transforming Rural India, a non-profit.

Mint explains what the millets market holds: Nearly all respondents in the central (97%) and western (96%) regions were familiar with at least one type of millet. Those from the east (79%) were relatively less aware. Bajra was the most widely known type, by nearly two-thirds of respondents, followed by jowar and ragi, while other millets were more local.

However, a vast share of those who were aware had never consumed millets. The gap was the biggest in central India, where 46% had never consumed millets. In southern states, only 10% hadn’t done so.

Family and friends were the primary sources of awareness, but not doctors or nutritionists. Social media or the internet were also not major sources of knowing about millets, even in a year of massive awareness campaigns. The survey covered 21 states and 64% of its sample was urban.

However, the overall figures have been weighted to adjust for this. The survey, which took place in May-June 2023, was representative across city tiers, ages, genders, and occupations. Even among those who had ever consumed millets, just 17% said they did so