Millet: the development driver of the agro-industrial complex or a niche crop?

The food demand from 2005 to 2050, when the world's population is going to reach 10 billion people, will increase by 50%. One of the agricultural crops that provide the population with the necessary products is millet. The purpose of the article is to assess the prospects for the millet development in our country based on the analysis of existing trends and to identify potential segments for improving the production and processing of this crop. The authors analyzed global and domestic trends in millet production, identified the factors that caused the transformation of this crop into a "niche" (low marginality of millet, and innovative component of breeding programs, lack of processing enterprises, imperfection of economic relations between agricultural producers and processing enterprises, low efficiency and minimization of extra-budgetary funding, etc.). The authors note there are factors contributing to the increase in millet production in the country: the growth of the world's population, the demand increase by the millet countries-importers from Russia, the diversification of production at agricultural and processing enterprises, efficient breeding programs to develop new cultivars of crops, including millet, the demand for environmentally friendly products in the world and in the country, raising awareness of the population in healthy nutrition, increasing demand for fiber-rich foods, etc. The directions contributing to the increase in millet production in the country for the future are outlined: acceleration of breeding progress in new millet cultivars commercialization, development of modern technologies for millet cultivation, progress reaching of modern technologies for millet processing and production of innovative, in-demand food products, consolidation of efforts to boost demand for healthy food products, improvement of economic relations in the supply chain, and price relationships.

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