How and when did millets become so deeply entangled with the cultures and lifeworlds of the Parenga, the Didayi, and other millet-cultivating communities in the highlands of Odisha? Under what circumstances were various millets chosen to become part of the local crop spectra? And what is the deep-history of crops in the highlands? These questions have been on the mind of postdoctoral researcher Sonja Filatova, who has been studying the ethnobotanical material collected by René, Nidhi and Ashu during the exploratory phase of the project. It is evident that three cereals are omnipresent in the collected material: finger millet, little millet, and rice. None of these crops were domesticated in Odisha (e.g. Fuller 2011; Bates 2022), which means that they were introduced to the highlands and selected by the local communities at some point in time. It is evident from Sonja’s inquiries that, in terms of the history of agriculture in the region, evidence comes from only three archaeological sites in the coastal plain dating to the Neolithic period (ca. 1550 BCE; Harvey et al. 2006, Kingwell-Banham et al. 2018; Naik et al. 2019). At that time, rice was the staple cereal and various species of millets that are indigenous to India, such as little millet, browntop millet and kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.) were present, but it is unclear whether these were arable weeds of rice or whether they were cultivated for food. Based on the current archaeobotanical record, it is thus uncertain when the millets were taken into cultivation in Odisha, and specifically when these were introduced in the highlands. Samples for archaeobotanical analysis have been taken from several archaeological sites in the highlands in the north of Odisha, but these have unfortunately not yielded any plant remains so far (Harvey et al. 2006). The archaeological repertoire of the sites indicates that they were ephemeral and likely of a seasonal nature, which has led to the hypothesis that the communities that inhabited these sites practiced shifting cultivation (Harvey et al. 2006; Kingwell-Banham and Fuller 2012; Kingwell-Banham et al. 2018). Which crops might have been cultivated at that time remains elusive for the time being. Archaeological and archaeobotanical investigations of the highlands in the Southern districts of Koraput and Malkangiri are completely lacking to date, and hence the past cultivation practices of communities in the south of Odisha remain unknown.

The cultivation systems of Adivasi in Odisha include shifting cultivation and permanent upland cultivation (and in some cases a mix of both), whereby rice and species of millets are cultivated as staples, the importance of the staples varying between different communities (Carrin, Rousseleau and Guzy 2021; Kingwell-Banham and Fuller 2012; Hardenberg 2018; Berger and Pfeffer 2021). In recent decades, especially the crop spectra of Adivasi farmers who practice shifting cultivation have seen an increased presence of rice, which can be traced back to the Green Revolution in the 1960’s, whereby modern (i.e., hybrid and high-yielding) varieties of rice were promoted alongside, amongst other things, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural machinery. Modern varieties of rice were furthermore incorporated into the Public Distribution System (PDS), leading to an increase in the cultivation and consumption of rice among lower-income population in India as well as Adivasi communities (Parayil 1992; Hardenberg 2021). Sharanya Nayak, a partner of our projects and founder of the Rangmatipadar Adivasi Commune in Odisha, told Sonja that rice has further increased in popularity in the region due to the installation of rice milling machines in and nearby villages. The increase of the cultivation and consumption of (modern varieties of) rice has gone hand-in hand with the decline in the importance of local varieties of rice and millets, in particular little millet.                                                       

According to Sharanya, processing little millet was the responsibility of young girls, but after attending school was made obligatory for them, there was no one who could take care of this time-consuming task. As rice was processed mechanically, it soon started to substitute little millet on Adivasi plates.

Not all millets, however, declined in importance, as finger millet has remained a staple among Adivasi communities in Odisha. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.), which owes its name to the peculiar shape of its infructescence (see photo), is consumed daily in the form of a liquid gruel that is known as mandia jau in Odia (although rice flour is known to be mixed with finger millet flour in some cases, pers. comm. Hardenberg). The gruel is a companion to most meals and serves as a source of nutrition during long days away in the field. In addition, the gruel forms one of the most important sources of hydration, as Gadaba and other Adivasi communities hardly consume water in its pure form (Berger 2015, 29-33). A characteristic of finger millet that appeared from the samples that Sonja studied, is that unlike most crops in the dataset, finger millet was not attacked by storage pests. It is well-known that finger millet is resistant to many pests and that it can therefore be stored for long periods of time (up to several decades), making finger millet an attractive (famine) crop for farmers (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research 1952, 164-165). In addition, René’s inquiries in Odisha have shown that compare to other millets, finger millet can be processed relatively easily by hand, which is related to the loose connection of its hulls and the papery nature of its fruit wall that is removed during processing (Cappers and Neef 2021, 200).

There are thus many facets to the advantages of cultivating and consuming finger millet, including its versatility, pest resistance and processing qualities. What further distinguishes finger millet from other crops in the dataset is that its gruel provides both nutrients and hydration, forming a highly valued component of daily diet within Adivasi communities. Is it possible that finger millet stands so strong as a staple not only due to its agronomic and economic advantages, but also due to the way it is consumed? In the case of finger millet, it is worthwhile to consider the role that local food traditions have played in the importance of crops within Adivasi communities through time.