I have posted here before about the leadership role in Responsible Tourism taken by Kerala and Madhya Pradesh; India is now the world’s leading Responsible Tourism Destination. India is currently leading the G20 and has an opportunity to encourage others to take a destination-led approach to developing and managing tourism in mission mode. The 2023 Budget advocates a shift from department centric and scheme-centric approach to a destination-centric approach for planning, developing and managing tourism. Convergence, getting all of the ministries, departments and agencies at national, state and local levels is essential to managing tourism sustainably.
India is also addressing the threat of climate change. In Bhopal earlier this year I was offered a chocolate brownie by a chef, challenged, as have other chefs, to cook with millet. It was stunning, perhaps the best I have ever eaten. Army chefs are also being trained to cook millet. This year’s YUVA Pratibha – Culinary Talent Hunt’ includes millets.
2023 is the International Tear of Millets. Millet is a family of small-seeded grasses cultivated as grain crops, including pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) and sorghum (jowar). In Europe, we are familiar with it as food for budgerigars; India is promoting its cultivation and use in top restaurants to change the public perception of the grain.
Jacqueline Hughes, Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), explains that millets adapt to the drylands and grow in difficult conditions. Since they are hardy, salinity-tolerant, and can grow in drought-prone environments with poor soils, even in temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius, they minimise the risk to farmers and communities. Back in December, Prime Minister Modi at the launch of the International Year of Millets at the FAO in Rome, saying “A global movement related to millets is an important step since they are easy to grow, climate resilient, and drought resistant,” The government has increased the value of millets to farmers and through the public distribution system ensured a steady market.
Millets have many valuable qualities, resistant to climatic stress, pests, and diseases, and they are high in dietary fibre and nutritionally rich, free of gluten with a low glycemic index. Arguably their most important characteristic is that millets do not require a lot of water or other resources, making them a long-term option for combating climate change and constructing climate-resilient agri-food systems.
PM Modi introduced LiFE at COP 26 in November 2021, LiFE style for the environment, pro-planet. The Ministry of Tourism has launched a sectoral tourism programme to bring behavioural change amongst businesses. Travel for LiFE focuses in Phase 1 on changing demand from tourists and in Phase 2 on changing supply. This reflects SDG Goal 12: “Responsible Consumption and Production.” The aspiration of Travel for LiFE is the “mass adoption” of the principles and practices by tourists and tourism businesses.
The national government in India is doing more than most to address climate change and to encourage industry and tourists to make tourism sustainable. Can India use its leadership of the GH20 to encourage others?
