Archaeobotanical and historical studies have shown that a changing fate of millets is not unprecedented (de Wet 2000, Fuller 2014, Fuller et al. 2010, Haaland 2011, Kingwell-Banham and Fuller 2012, Morrison 2016). During the Late Harappan period, for example, cultivation of indigenous millets such as browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa (L.) T.Q. Nguyen) and little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth) shifted to millets of African origin, i.e. sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus (L.) Morrone). This change has been related to an increasing population pressure and a need for more intensive agricultural practices, to which the two African millets are more suitable (Weber and Kashyap 2016). In the south of India, indigenous millet cultivation and consumption was marginalized by the preference for rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation starting from the Iron Age, a change that is likely connected to the growth of an elite and their culinary preferences (Morrison 2016). Similar diachronic studies are lacking for the state of Odisha, which until now has a limited archaeobotanical record (e.g. Harvey et al. 2006, Kingwell-Banham et al. 2018, Naik et al. 2019). However, understanding the conditions, dynamics and implications of crop selection in the past is crucial for planning sustainable food production in the future. Why have millets been marginalized or abandoned completely at different times and places despite their advantageous properties? Why are they now being (re-)introduced?

In 2017, the government of the Indian state of Odisha initiated the Odisha Millets Mission (OMM, the name was changed to Shree Anna Abhiyan in 2024). This mission especially targets “tribal areas”, that is those regions predominantly populated by Indigenous communities called Adivasis (“first inhabitants”) who are the main cultivators of millets in the state. Peter and Roland have been working with Adivasi communities of the region for several decades. These Adivasi communities — numbering about 100 million people in India (Census of 2011) as a whole — mostly live in the mountainous regions of Odisha, while the coastal lowland is dominated by rice-cultivating Hindu communities. The Odisha Millets Mission aims at improving cultivation and processing technologies, thus increasing the production of millets, also in areas where millets are currently not cultivated. They also strive to popularize millets among urban middle classes with new marketing strategies in order to increase millet consumption.

As the ongoing research reveals, these measures were already partially successful. In the capital of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, food shops offering new kinds of millet-based products are well frequented by urban customers who consider millets a new healthy life-style food, as has also been observed for South India (Erler et al. 2020, Finnis 2012). Moreover, in 2018/19 finger millets were included for the first time in the Public Distribution System of the state (Makkar et al. 2019). These measures guarantee poor farmers a fixed price for their produce and prevent the fluctuation of prices profitable for middle-men. Previously rice was collected by the state and then provided for schools and people falling in the category called “BPL” (Below Poverty Line) as subsidized rations. This substantially contributed to the decline of millet consumption (Basavaraj et al. 2010). In 2018/19 for the first time, local farmers could sell their millets to the state. Within a short period of time, therefore, these policies had a considerable impact. It was our working hypothesis that the national and regional policies give rise to new local configurations in which forms of knowledge, valuations and practices concerning millets are reframed and revised, involving Indigenous cultivators, NGOs, state actors, commercial farmers, urban population and new markets and technologies. The current situation in Odisha is thus a perfect case to study the different dimensions of such a transformation as it happens.