"We have focused so much on rice that we haven't really looked at some of those crops like millets, sorghum and beans," she said. A campaign is underway to promote these alternatives as "smart crops" to make them more attractive, Kadiresan said. "We are calling them smart crops to get people not to think about them as poor people's food but smart people's food," she said, adding that they are not only nutritious but also more adaptable to climate change.
A worker carries a bale of dry millet at a field on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad