Millets as a group of crops are represented by sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) , and minor millets including banyard millet, proso millet, kodo millet and foxtail millet. Being excellent source of essential nutrients, they are also called as ‘nutritious cereals’. Millets are the staple food for the world’s poorest and most food insecure people across the semi-arid tropics. The three crop improvement programmes on millets, sponsored by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Directorate of Sorghum Research (DSR), and other institutions in both public and private sector are working to improve livelihood of dryland farmers through improvement of productivity and alternate uses of millets.

The “Society for Millets Research” (SMR) has therefore been formed to provide a common platform to all the individuals engaged in research and development efforts on Millets. This society endeavours to create a meaningful mandate for actions, and groups (both regional, national and international diasporas) to enhance global competitiveness of millets through efficient and environmentally friendly production technologies, value-addition and marketing as a significant food, feed, fodder, fuel (bioenergy) crops to ensure economic prosperity of resource-poor dryland farmers of tropics. The primary goal of developing this society is to serve the cause of millets through partnership with the industry and other interested stakeholders to promote their utilization.

 GOALS

1. To promote research and development on millets and millet-based cropping systems.
2. To promote industrial utilization of millets to enhance economic threshold levels of rural livelihoods in the semi-arid tropics.
3. To disseminate knowledge on millets through lectures, seminars, symposia, publications and exchange programmes.

OBJECTIVES

1. Improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of millets production systems.
2. Improvement of nutritional and food quality of millets and promotion of millets as health-food, and industrial raw material.
3. Incorporation of durable resistances to various pests, diseases and parasites and promote integrated management of pests including post harvest technology.
4. Promoting industrial uses of millet grain and stalks, including millets as principal source of biomass and bio-energy.
5. Creating avenues to enhance export of millets and to create a viable researcher-industry interface for over all promotion of millets as industrial crops.

ACTIVITIES

The activities of the society will consist of organizing seminars and symposia in frontier areas on millets and publication of journals, bulletins, reports, newsletters and sponsored monographs.

OFFICE BEARERS

1. President : Dr. NGP Rao, Former Chairman: ASRB; Hyderabad
2. Vice-president : Dr. IS Khairwal, Project Coordinator (Pearl Millet); Jodhpur
3. General Secretary : Dr. N Seetharama, Director, DSR & Project Coordinator ; Hyderabad
4. Joint Secretary : Dr. KT Krishne Gowda, Project Coordinator (Small Millets); Bangalore
5. Treasurer : Dr. Vilas A Tonapi, Principal Scientist, DSR; Hyderabad
6. Executive Members
   • National: Dr.Yogeshwar Rao, President, Seedmen Association (Sorghum)
   • International: Dr. BVS Reddy, Principal Scientist, ICRISAT, patancheru, Hyderabad

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