Millets are moving from village fields to national policy — and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel wants every household to notice. On Sunday, 27 September 2026, during Poshan Maah, Patel amplified Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appreciation for state-level millet and traditional nutrition drives, calling the ancient grain a decisive weapon in India's war against malnutrition.

In his post, Patel wrote: 'Kuposhan ke viruddh jaari hamaari ladaai mein millets ek behad mahatvapoorn bhumika nibha rahe hain' — 'In our ongoing fight against malnutrition, millets are playing an extremely important role.' He noted that PM Modi had, in the day's Mann Ki Baat episode, specifically praised the efforts of Gujarat and several other states for promoting millets and locally sourced nutritious food during the nutrition month. Patel closed with a direct call to action: include millets in daily diets and help realise the Prime Minister's vision of a 'healthy India'.

Mann Ki Baat as a policy megaphone for Poshan Maah

Poshan Maah — National Nutrition Month — is observed every September and anchors state and district governments around themed nutrition campaigns. This year's spotlight on millets and traditional foods reflects a deliberate effort to tie dietary habits to the government's broader POSHAN Abhiyaan, the National Nutrition Mission launched in 2018 to systematically reduce stunting, wasting, and anaemia — especially in women and children. PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat, his monthly radio address that reaches tens of millions of listeners, has repeatedly served as a platform to translate national schemes into household-level behaviour change.

India's millet moment — from a UN push to the dinner plate

The millet story carries significant international weight. India proposed — and the United Nations declared — 2023 the International Year of Millets, catapulting crops like bajra, jowar, ragi, and foxtail millet onto global menus. Three years on, that momentum is being channelled into grassroots nutrition programmes. States are being encouraged to embed millets in midday meal schemes and anganwadi supplementary nutrition, targeting the children and pregnant women who bear the heaviest burden of malnutrition.

The logic is hard to argue with: millets are drought-resilient, cheaper per nutrient than polished rice or wheat, rich in iron, calcium, and fibre, and deeply rooted in India's culinary traditions. Bringing them back to the plate is simultaneously a public-health intervention and a lifeline for the small and marginal farmers who grow them.

Gujarat's role in the national nutrition frame

For Chief Minister Patel, a shout-out on Mann Ki Baat is both an acknowledgement and a mandate. Gujarat's inclusion in PM Modi's appreciation signals that state-level implementation — in anganwadis, health camps, and community kitchens — is being monitored at the national level. Patel's post reinforces Gujarat's commitment to the #PoshanMaah agenda and signals continuity in the BJP's push to align state governance with Union government nutrition targets.

With national nutritional surveys and POSHAN trackers continuing to measure outcomes, the real scorecard on whether millets make a dent in malnutrition numbers is still being written — and the states on Modi's list now have every reason to make sure the data moves in the right direction.