Assessing Millets and Sorghum Consumption Behavior in Urban India: A Large-Scale Survey

Kane-Potaka, J and Anitha, S and Tsusaka, T W and Botha, R and Budumuru, M and Upadhyay, S and Kumar, P and Karuna, M and Hunasgi, R and Jalagam, A and Nedumaran, S (2021) Assessing Millets and Sorghum Consumption Behavior in Urban India: A Large-Scale Survey. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (TSI), 5 (680777). ISSN 2571-581X

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Abstract

There is growing attention by governments and industry in regard to the role played by millets (including sorghum) to help build resilience for farmers and cope with climate change, malnutrition, diabetes, and some other major issues. To understand public knowledge and practices of consuming millets in urban areas, a survey was conducted with 15,522 individuals from seven major cities of India using a structured questionnaire, and after data cleaning 15,139 observations were subjected to analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that the largest group among early adopters of millets were people with health problems (28%), it being the single largest reason for consuming millets, followed by those wanting to lose weight (15%) and those selecting millets for its taste (14%). There was a significant gap between people who were health conscious (91%) and those who were sure millets were healthy (40%). The major reason the respondents did not eat more millets was that it was not eaten at home (40%), followed by reactions such as not liking the taste (22%). Reaching the urban consumers through social media is recommended, given that it is their main source of information. There was no statistically significant relationship between state-wise per capita production and frequency of consumption of millets in the urban areas (p = 0.236). In conclusion, three key actions are recommended to enhance the consumption of millets: developing delicious products to satisfy the taste, providing knowledge on nutritional and health facts on millets, and improving accessibility of millets in urban markets.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Global Research Program - Enabling Systems Transformation Strategic Marketing and Communication
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Millets, Sorghum, health benefit, knowledge and practice and consumer behavior
Subjects:	Others > Smart Foods Mandate crops > Millets Mandate crops > Sorghum
Depositing User:	Mr Ramesh MNR
Date Deposited:	14 Jun 2022 04:09
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2022 13:23
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11994
Official URL:	https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.680777
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	This work was undertaken as part of the Smart Food initiative led by ICRISAT, FARA, CORAF, FANRPAN, and APAARI and coordinated jointly in India with IIMR. The authors are grateful to a range of people for their inputs: the expert panel for reviewing the survey—Ravula Padmaja, Jerome Bossuet, and Carl Hinrichsen (ICRISAT staff/consultants) and Sridhar Iriventi (Founder and Managing Director of Go Bharathi Agro Industries); and Ismail Mohamad (ICRISAT) for generating the map.
Links:	Google Scholar

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