Climate-Smart Millets Production in Future for Food and Nutritional Security

The increasing effect of variations in climatic parameters because of climate change and global warming ultimately causes hindrances to agriculture. The world food demand will be increased to feed the growing populations. The urbanization, enhancement of income and expected change in food habit in the future will add dimension in food demand. Agriculture may witness challenging constraints with degrading and dwindling natural resources. Under these consequences, millets can emerge as climate-smart crops because of their efficient morphological, physiological, molecular and biochemical traits as they can withstand against climatic extremes like tolerance to warm temperature, water stress and elevated CO2 levels. Further, millets contribute fewer carbon footprints, check soil erosion and nutrient loss, promote biodiversity and lead future farming towards sustainability. Presently, millets were re-evaluated as nutritious grains for their chemical composition and treated as functional food for nutritional security. In the risk-prone arid and semi-arid regions of the world, still millets account food and livelihood security of a sizable population belongs to developing countries as the crops have wider adaptability in various cropping systems. Climate-smart agricultural technologies like precision crop management, integrated nutrient management (INM), site specific nutrient management (SSNM), resource conservation technologies (RCT), precision agriculture, agronomic manipulations in planting time and geometry and integrated pest management (IPM) may be adopted targeting assured contribution to future food basket targeting food as well as nutritional security. This chapter discusses the importance and role of millets against climate change. In addition, various climate smart agricultural practices have also been disused contribution to future food basket for food and nutritional security.