The Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a special food stall Jammu Kashmir Rural Livelihood Mission (JKRLM) Millet Hub” for foreign delegates at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar during G20 meetings.
Under India’s presidency, Srinagar is currently hosting the third G20 Working Group Meeting.
Naresh Mathur, Block Program Manager JKRLM said, “This year is being celebrated as the International Year of Millets. G20 is giving us a big stage to promote millet as a source of nutrition and livelihood.
Women of the Self-Help Group are managing everything, and we are promoting this as an opportunity to earn a livelihood.”
The United Nations General Assembly at the initiative of India declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets in March 2021.
“Millets-based recipes are developed based on community knowledge. We are trying to empower SHGs from Baramulla, Nagaland and Sikkim by giving them livelihood based on millet. We are trying to take our products from the grassroots to the global level, and G20 is the best platform for it,” said Syed Nadeem, General Manager of Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN), in J-K’s Srinagar.
Millets are the first crops to be cultivated in Asia and Africa. Later it was adopted as an important food source for advanced civilisations around the world.
One of the oldest foods known to mankind, the small-seeded and hardy, these crops can grow on said lands with minimal inputs and are resilient to changes in climate.
The millets commonly grown in India include Jowar (sorghum), Bajra (pearl millet), Ragi (finger millet), Jhangora (barnyard millet), Barri (common millet), Kangni (foxtail/ Italian millet), Kodra (kodo millet), etc.
The meetings are being held at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar from May 22-24. The people of Kashmir welcomed the G20 summit meetings which aim to boost the tourism and business sector. The delegates are likely to visit the various famous places in Srinagar.
