As many as 500 participants from across the world, including around 200 faculty and students from the country, participated in a two-day national conference on millets organised by the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
The conference that was inaugurated on Thursday is being held in the College of Food and Dairy Technology, Koduvalli. India is the largest producer of millets followed by Niger and China, said K.N. Selvakumar, University Vice-Chancellor. Millets are cultivated in over 120 countries currently and for over half a billion people across Asia and Africa they are the traditional food. The World Food Programme estimates that 1.2 billion people across the world consume millets as part of their diet.
Though rural Indians had traditionally grown and consumed them, their health benefits gained popularity in the recent years, he said.
