BAt the G-20 Summit in New Delhi, the hosts served a vegetarian gala dinner to heads of state and government. Instead of the usual heavy meat dishes at diplomatic dinners, the chefs served, among other things, millet crisps and millet pudding – making Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s favorite grains stand out more.

As main courses, Olaf Scholz, Joe Biden and other leaders were served small millet chips besides jackfruit galette with glazed wild mushrooms and Kerala rice with curry leaves. The millet trio was complemented by millet chips with yoghurt balls on the appetizer plate and cardamom millet pudding for dessert.

Modi’s millet plan

The preference for delicacies of mostly plant origin has a serious political and economic background: millet cultivation, a tradition for thousands of years in India, has been on the back burner since the 1960s at the expense of high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice. Since then, millet has long been considered a staple food of the poor.

Since taking office in 2014, the Hindu nationalist Modi has tried to significantly expand millet cultivation. The advantages of traditional gluten-free grains are clear, especially in light of climate change: Millet grows twice as fast as wheat and requires only 30 percent more water than rice.

India’s millet plans appear to be on the right track: in 2021, the value of millet exported from India alone increased to the equivalent of almost 60 million euros – a significant increase compared to previous years.