Coarse cereals

Also called: Coarse grains · Topic: Major Crops of India: Distribution and Conditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

Coarse cereals (also called coarse grains) are hardy food grains, mainly jowar, bajra, ragi and maize. They are mostly rainfed, which means they depend on rain, not on canals or wells. They grow on poorer soils and together cover about 16.5% of India's cropped area (NCERT, Class 12).

They matter because they feed people and animals in India's dry farmlands, where rice and wheat struggle. The millets among them (jowar, bajra, ragi and the small millets) are now promoted as Nutri-cereals and Shree Anna because they use little water, cope with climate change and are very nutritious. Maize is a coarse cereal, but it is not a millet.

Explanation

Why coarse cereals grow where they do

• They need little water.
• Most are rainfed and grow in states with low to moderate rain, about 200–800 mm a year [2].

• They are staple crops of the dry farmlands of the arid and semi-arid tropics (hot places with little rain) [2].

• They put up with poor soil.

• They grow on sandy, red, shallow black and loamy soils with few or no fertilisers [2].

• They stand heat and drought.

• They can survive heat of up to 50°C and long dry spells [2].

• Pests rarely attack them in the field or in storage, so farmers need few pesticides [2].

• Result: they fill the dry lands that the Green Revolution (the 1960s push of better seeds, fertiliser and canals) left out. They avoid canal-irrigated Punjab and the wet east.

The parts: four main crops

Crop	Share of cropped area (NCERT)	Climate and soil	Season	Leading state
Jowar (sorghum)	~5.3%	Semi-arid, rainfed; moist areas needing little irrigation	Kharif and rabi in the south; kharif fodder crop in the north	Maharashtra (over half of India's output)
Bajra (pearl millet)	~5.2%	Hot, dry north-west and west; sandy and shallow black soils; drought-hardy	Kharif	Rajasthan
Ragi (finger millet)	—	Dry regions and hill slopes; red, black, sandy, loamy and shallow black soils	Mainly kharif	Karnataka
Maize	~3.6%	21–27°C; old alluvium and poorer soils; semi-arid areas	Kharif (also rabi in Bihar)	Karnataka

• Kharif means a crop sown when the monsoon starts (about June–July) and harvested about September–October. Rabi means a winter crop, sown about October–December and harvested about April–June.
• Fodder means a crop grown to feed animals.
• Jowar is India's third most important food crop by area and by output, after rice and wheat (NCERT, Class 10). Yields south of the Vindhyas are very low.
• Bajra is grown alone or in mixed cropping, where two or more crops grow in the same field at the same time. Its yields rose in Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat for two reasons:
• drought-resistant varieties (seed types that survive dry spells)

• more irrigation

• Eight bio-fortified bajra varieties and hybrids were released between 2018 and February 2022 [2]. Bio-fortified means bred to carry more nutrients, such as iron and zinc.

• Ragi is a typical dryland crop (a crop grown without irrigation in low-rain areas). It is rich in iron, calcium and roughage (fibre).
• Maize gives the highest yield of all coarse cereals. Yields are high in the south and fall towards central India. Output rose because of HYV seeds (high-yielding varieties), fertilisers and irrigation.
• It grows well on bhangar (old alluvium laid down by rivers long ago, lying above the flood level).

Millets: the main group inside coarse cereals

• Millets are small-seeded grasses grown for grain. India grows all nine commonly known millets [2]:
• Major millets: Sorghum (Jowar), Pearl millet (Bajra), Finger millet (Ragi).

• Minor (small) millets: Little millet (Kutki), Foxtail millet (Kakun / Kangni), Proso millet (Cheena), Barnyard millet (Sawa), Kodo millet (Kodon) [2].

• Share of India's millet output (2021-22): pearl millet 60% > sorghum 27% > finger millet 11% > small millets 2% [2].

• They are old crops. Millet remains have been found at Mehrgarh (Balochistan, Pakistan), one of South Asia's earliest farming sites (NCERT, Class 7). People also ate millets in the Indus Valley Civilisation [2].
• Nutrition:
• They are called "coarse", but they have more protein, fibre, calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and B-vitamins than rice or wheat [2].
• They are gluten-free (gluten is a wheat protein some people cannot digest).

• They have a low glycaemic index (they raise blood sugar slowly), which helps against diabetes and obesity [2].

• New names: the Government of India notified millets as Nutri-cereals in April 2018 [2]. The Union Budget 2023-24 named them Shree Anna ("revered grain").

Decline and revival

• Why they declined:
• The Green Revolution gave seeds, fertiliser and canals mainly to rice and wheat.
• The government bought rice and wheat at MSP (Minimum Support Price) and gave them out through the PDS (Public Distribution System, the network of ration shops).

• Millets became "orphan crops" (grown and eaten less and less). They fell from about 40% of all grains grown before the Green Revolution to about 20% [2].

• How they are being revived:

• India observed 2018 as the National Year of Millets [2].
• NFSM–Nutri Cereals (the millet part of the National Food Security Mission) runs in 212 districts of 14 states [2].
• MSP was raised. Bajra MSP went from ₹1,425 to ₹2,350 per quintal between 2017-18 and 2022-23 [2].
• The UN declared 2023 the International Year of Millets after India proposed it [3].

• Millets are being added to PM POSHAN (the mid-day meal scheme) and the PDS [2].

• Maize's new pull:

• Maize is the main grain fed to chickens (poultry feed).
• It is also made into grain ethanol, a fuel mixed with petrol under the E20 target (petrol with 20% ethanol).
• So the poultry industry and ethanol plants now compete to buy maize.

Where it occurs

• Jowar: the semi-arid black-soil Deccan. Leading states in order: Maharashtra → Karnataka → Madhya Pradesh → Andhra Pradesh → Telangana.
• Bajra: the sandy, dry north-west and west. Leading states in order: Rajasthan → Maharashtra → Gujarat → Uttar Pradesh → Haryana (NCERT, Class 12).
• Ragi: the red soils of the southern plateau and Himalayan slopes. Leading states in order: Karnataka → Tamil Nadu → Himachal Pradesh → Uttarakhand → Sikkim → Jharkhand → Arunachal Pradesh.
• Maize: almost all of India except Punjab and the east and north-east. Leading states are Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Bihar also grows a rabi crop of maize.
• Main millet states: Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana [2]. Rajasthan leads because of bajra.
• India in the world:
• India is the largest producer of millets and the fifth-largest exporter [2].
• It grows more than 170 lakh tonnes, about 20% of world output and 80% of Asia's (FAOSTAT, 2019) [2].
• India's yield is 1,239 kg per hectare, against a world average of 1,229 kg per hectare [2].

• Millet exports were worth USD 34.32 million in 2021-22. Main buyers: UAE, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Oman [2].

• Rest of the world:

• Africa has 68% of the world's millet area and 49% of its output (2019) [2].
• The main producing countries are India, Niger, Sudan and Nigeria [2].

• Jowar is grown in 112 countries, more than any other millet. Sorghum and pearl millet together make up over 90% of the world's millet area and output [2].

• Global Centre of Excellence: ICAR-IIMR, Hyderabad (Indian Institute of Millets Research, Telangana). It was announced on 18 March 2023 at the Global Millets (Shree Anna) Conference in New Delhi [2].

Don't confuse with

• Millets vs coarse cereals: all millets are coarse cereals, but not all coarse cereals are millets. Maize is a coarse cereal but not a millet.
• Major millets vs minor millets: the major millets are jowar, bajra and ragi. The minor (small) millets are kutki, kakun, cheena, sawa and kodon, and together they give only 2% of India's millet output [2].
• Rice and wheat: these are mostly irrigated Green Revolution crops bought at MSP and given out through the PDS. Coarse cereals are mostly rainfed and grow on poorer soils.
• National Year of Millets (2018) vs International Year of Millets (2023): 2018 was India's own year [2]. 2023 was declared by the UN General Assembly through resolution A/RES/75/263 [3].

Prelims Hooks

• Leading state matches: jowar – Maharashtra (over half of output); bajra – Rajasthan; ragi – Karnataka; maize – Karnataka.
• Bajra trap: after Rajasthan, Class 12 NCERT ranks Maharashtra second, but Class 10 NCERT ranks Uttar Pradesh second.
• Millet output order (2021-22): pearl millet (60%) > sorghum (27%) > finger millet (11%) > small millets (2%) [2].
• Maize: 21–27°C, old alluvium, kharif, and also rabi in Bihar. It is not grown much in Punjab or the east and north-east. It has the highest yield of all coarse cereals.
• Minor-millet name pairs: Kodo–Kodon, Little–Kutki, Foxtail–Kakun, Proso–Cheena, Barnyard–Sawa [2].
• IYM 2023: UNGA resolution A/RES/75/263 of 5 March 2021, adopted without a vote and proposed by India [3]. 72 countries supported it [2].

Mains Points

• Their spread follows dryness and poor soil (GS-I):
• Bajra grows on the sandy soils of the north-west (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana). Jowar grows on the semi-arid black-soil Deccan (Maharashtra, Karnataka).
• Ragi grows on the red soils of the southern plateau and on Himalayan slopes. Maize grows on old alluvium and plateau uplands (Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar).

• All of them avoid canal-irrigated Punjab and the wet east.

• Decline and revival (GS-III):

• Green Revolution support and PDS rice and wheat turned millets into "orphan crops", and their share of grains grown fell from about 40% to about 20% [2].
• The revival rests on higher MSP, NFSM–Nutri Cereals in 212 districts, PM POSHAN, the PDS and the Shree Anna name [2].

• Gains: they need little water and few chemicals, leave a low carbon footprint and survive heat up to 50°C [2]. This protects rainfed farmers from drought and saves groundwater where it is over-used. They also fight hidden hunger (a lack of vitamins and minerals even when a person eats enough calories).

• Maize's changing geography (GS-III):

• Demand for poultry feed and grain ethanol under the E20 target is pulling maize into new areas.
• Gains: higher farm incomes and less need to import oil.
• Trade-offs: higher feed costs for poultry farmers, and the "food vs fuel" question.

Related concepts

• Millets
• Jowar
• Bajra
• Ragi
• Maize
• International Year of Millets 2023

Read more

• Coarse cereals and millets: jowar, bajra, ragi, maize