Issues

• Mostly grown as rainfed crop under poor and marginal soils
• Sorghum being cultivated mostly for fodder purpose and not for  grain
• Apart from maize other millet crops  are not remunerative
• Processing is tedious
• Farmers are  growing  old traditional varieties
• Poor nutrient management
• Millet eating habit among the younger generation is poor

Strategies

• Replacing of low yielding varieties  with high yielding varieties/hybrids
• Creating awareness to farmers on the importance of millets in the dietary  requirement through training SHG/ farmers for production  and value addition
•  Organising field demonstrations to showcase the yield potential of  the high  yielding varieties/ hybrids with a package of nutrient management and production technologies
• Introduction of millets in the nontraditional districts where millets  are not grown
• Increasing the area under small millets in the hilly areas
• Bringing in unutilized land in to cultivation of millets under rainfed / drought situations
• Self seed maintenance
• Promotion of processing industries and value addition
• Commodity group formation for higher market price and fixing minimum  support price for Millets

These require strategic interventions by National and International agencies to tap the utilized potential of the water starved areas to produce and supply millets which are fore more nutritious and serve as health food. It would go a long way in removing poverty in Asian and African Countries.