The Smart Food initiativeOur aim is to bring Smart Food into mainstream along with the other major staples.

It is therefore proposed to establish a Smart Food initiative with the overall goal to accelerate and popularize investments and support for the research and development of value chains for Smart Food – starting with millets and sorghum.

We also want to ensure small holder farmers in developing countries benefit from the market growth and can move out of poverty and their hidden hunger.

Partner on the Smart Food initiativeThe campaign is expected to include:

▪ Creation of an overall campaign branding, messaging, scientific backing and key creative material to highlight the messages.

▪ Consumer campaigns in India, selected African countries and Western countries to change the image and promote the advantages of millets.

▪ Involvement of food processing companies, local groups as well as multinationals, to develop modern millet-based products.

▪ Targeted promotion to development donors and organizations about the value and potential of millets.

▪ New innovative ways to grab attention of all target audiences.

Smart Food was founded by:

44 years working in the drylands and with a specialty in Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals.Providing demand driven innovation toovercome poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation.

Some of the biggest global issues are:

Smart Food is one of the

solutions that contributes to addressing all these issues in unison.

Poor diets

Environmental issues

malnutrition to obesity

climate change, water scarcity and environmental degradation

Poverty

Smart Food is food that fulfills all the criteria of being:

GOOD FOR YOUGOOD FOR THE PLANETGOOD FOR THE FARMER

ApproachAn initiative has been designed around ‘Smart Food – good for you, good for the planet and good for the farmer’. The approach is based on creating a demand pull by the consumer.

Efforts will focus on building a stronger scientific-backed case for more support to millets. We will also highlight the issues and promote the value of millets and sorghum along with building a new modern image around what have been the traditional crops and foods in many areas. Complementary to this will be promoting the need for new modern and exciting products made with millets and sorghum.

Contact:

Joanna Kane-Potakaj.kane-potaka@cgiar.orgSmart Food Initiative CoordinatorICRISAT Strategic Marketing and Communication Director

Affordable protein – provided by grain legumes.

These are also crops critical in the drylands that will best survive the harsh environments and are most resilient hence climate smart crops. Basically, millets are the last crop standing in times of drought. The millets, sorghum and legumes have close to the lowest water and carbon footprints of all the crops.

Smart Food are good for the small holder farmers because their climate resilience means they are a good risk management strategy. Legumes have an important contribution to soil nutrition and when rotated with other crops, even increase the water use efficiency of the entire crop rotation. Their multiple uses and untapped demand means they have a lot more potential. Unlike the other crops they have not yet reached a yield plateau and have great potential for productivity increases.

The UN has identified the need for Sustainable Diets they define as “diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security…”, and believes that it is essential to set targets to strive towards this.Dryland cereals and grain legumes fulfill the UN requirement to have sustainable diets – foods that are highly nutritious while also being sustainable of the environment.

The major constraintsThere is one major constraint for these dryland cereals and grain legumes that are holding them back reaching their full potential – the value chains are significantly under developed.

With decades of significantly less investment and policy support compared to other crops they have:

▪Yields with the potential to increase approximately 3 times.

▪Multiple uses from food, feed, fodder, biofuels, brewing and consumer goods that are largely untapped.

▪Little development of processed modern convenience food products.

▪Low awareness outside the traditional areas where there is major untapped demand.

If we want to tackle malnutrition, environmental issues like climate change and water scarcity along with poverty, we need to break the divide and bring in more diversity – with Smart Food.

Dryland cereals and grain legumes can make major contributions to this if we make major investments in the whole value chain from breeding through to market development.

These Smart Food crops are highly nutritious and targeting some of the largest micronutrient deficiencies and needs especially of women and children. EG:

Iron, zinc and folic acid – Pearl millet has very high levels and bioavailability studies have shown that they will provide the average person’s daily requirement of iron and zinc.

Escalating levels of diabetes – can be avoided or managed by sorghum and millets because they have low GI.

Calcium – Finger millet has 3 times the amount compared to milk.

=

milletmilk

Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals like millets and sorghum are Smart Food.

The Smart Food initiativeOur aim is to bring Smart Food into mainstream along with the other major staples.

It is therefore proposed to establish a Smart Food initiative with the overall goal to accelerate and popularize investments and support for the research and development of value chains for Smart Food – starting with millets and sorghum.

We also want to ensure small holder farmers in developing countries benefit from the market growth and can move out of poverty and their hidden hunger.

Partner on the Smart Food initiativeThe campaign is expected to include:

▪Creation of an overall campaign branding,messaging, scientific backing and key creativematerial to highlight the messages.

▪Consumer campaigns in India, selected Africancountries and Western countries to change theimage and promote the advantages of millets.

▪Involvement of food processing companies, localgroups as well as multinationals, to developmodern millet-based products.

▪Targeted promotion to development donors andorganizations about the value and potential ofmillets.

▪New innovative ways to grab attention of all targetaudiences.

Smart Food was founded by:

44 years working in the drylands and with a specialty in Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals.Providing demand driven innovation toovercome poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation.

Some of the biggest global issues are:

Smart Food is one of the

solutions that contributes toaddressing all these issues in unison.

Poor diets

Environmental issues

malnutrition to obesity

climate change, water scarcity and environmental degradation

Poverty

Smart Food is food that fulfills all the criteria of being:

GOOD FOR YOUGOOD FOR THE PLANETGOOD FOR THE FARMER

ApproachAn initiative has been designed around ‘Smart Food –good for you, good for the planet and good for thefarmer’. The approach is based on creating a demandpull by the consumer.

Efforts will focus on building a stronger scientific-backed case for more support to millets. We will also highlight the issues and promote the value of millets and sorghum along with building a new modern image around what have been the traditional crops and foods in many areas. Complementary to this will be promoting the need for new modern and exciting products made with millets and sorghum.

Contact:

Joanna Kane-Potakaj.kane-potaka@cgiar.orgSmart Food Initiative CoordinatorICRISAT Strategic Marketing andCommunication Director

Affordable protein –provided by grain legumes.

These are also crops critical in the drylands that will best survive the harsh environments and are most resilient hence climate smart crops. Basically,millets are the last crop standing in times of drought. The millets, sorghum and legumes have close to the lowest water and carbon footprints of all the crops.

Smart Food are good for the small holder farmers because their climateresilience means they are a good risk management strategy. Legumes have an important contribution to soil nutrition and when rotated with other crops, even increase the water use efficiency of the entire crop rotation. Their multiple uses and untapped demand means they have a lot more potential. Unlike the other crops they have not yet reached a yield plateau and have great potential for productivity increases.

The UN has identified the need for Sustainable Diets they define as “diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security…”, and believes that it is essential to set targets to strive towards this.Dryland cereals and grain legumes fulfill the UN requirement to have sustainable diets – foods that are highly nutritious while also being sustainable of the environment.

The major constraintsThere is one major constraint for these dryland cereals and grain legumes that are holding them back reaching their full potential – the value chains are significantly under developed.

With decades of significantly less investment and policy support compared to other crops they have:

▪ Yields with the potential to increaseapproximately3 times.

▪ Multiple uses from food, feed, fodder, biofuels,brewing and consumer goods that are largelyuntapped.

▪ Little development of processed modernconvenience food products.

▪ Low awareness outside the traditional areaswhere there is major untapped demand.

If we want to tackle malnutrition, environmental issues like climate change and water scarcity along with poverty, we need to break the divide and bring in more diversity – with Smart Food.

Dryland cereals and grain legumes can make major contributions to this if we make major investments in the whole value chain from breeding through to market development.

These Smart Food crops are highly nutritiousand targeting some of the largest micronutrient deficiencies and needs especially of women and children. EG:

Iron, zinc and folic acid –Pearl millet has very high levels and bioavailability studies have shown that they will provide the average person’s daily requirement of iron and zinc.

Escalating levels of diabetes –can be avoided or managed by sorghum and millets because they have low GI.

Calcium –Finger millet has 3 times the amount compared to milk.

=

millet milk

Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals like millets and sorghum are Smart Food.

The Smart Food initiativeOur aim is to bring Smart Food into mainstream along with the other major staples.

It is therefore proposed to establish a Smart Food initiative with the overall goal to accelerate and popularize investments and support for the research and development of value chains for Smart Food – starting with millets and sorghum.

We also want to ensure small holder farmers in developing countries benefit from the market growth and can move out of poverty and their hidden hunger.

Partner on the Smart Food initiativeThe campaign is expected to include:

▪ Creation of an overall campaign branding, messaging, scientific backing and key creative material to highlight the messages.

▪ Consumer campaigns in India, selected African countries and Western countries to change the image and promote the advantages of millets.

▪ Involvement of food processing companies, local groups as well as multinationals, to develop modern millet-based products.

▪ Targeted promotion to development donors and organizations about the value and potential of millets.

▪ New innovative ways to grab attention of all target audiences.

Smart Food was founded by:

44 years working in the drylands and with a specialty in Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals.Providing demand driven innovation toovercome poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation.

Some of the biggest global issues are:

Smart Food is one of the

solutions that contributes to addressing all these issues in unison.

Poor diets

Environmental issues

malnutrition to obesity

climate change, water scarcity and environmental degradation

Poverty

Smart Food is food that fulfills all the criteria of being:

GOOD FOR YOUGOOD FOR THE PLANETGOOD FOR THE FARMER

ApproachAn initiative has been designed around ‘Smart Food – good for you, good for the planet and good for the farmer’. The approach is based on creating a demand pull by the consumer.

Efforts will focus on building a stronger scientific-backed case for more support to millets. We will also highlight the issues and promote the value of millets and sorghum along with building a new modern image around what have been the traditional crops and foods in many areas. Complementary to this will be promoting the need for new modern and exciting products made with millets and sorghum.

Contact:

Joanna Kane-Potakaj.kane-potaka@cgiar.orgSmart Food Initiative CoordinatorICRISAT Strategic Marketing and Communication Director

Affordable protein – provided by grain legumes.

These are also crops critical in the drylands that will best survive the harsh environments and are most resilient hence climate smart crops. Basically, millets are the last crop standing in times of drought. The millets, sorghum and legumes have close to the lowest water and carbon footprints of all the crops.

Smart Food are good for the small holder farmers because their climate resilience means they are a good risk management strategy. Legumes have an important contribution to soil nutrition and when rotated with other crops, even increase the water use efficiency of the entire crop rotation. Their multiple uses and untapped demand means they have a lot more potential. Unlike the other crops they have not yet reached a yield plateau and have great potential for productivity increases.

The UN has identified the need for Sustainable Diets they define as “diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food and nutrition security…”, and believes that it is essential to set targets to strive towards this.Dryland cereals and grain legumes fulfill the UN requirement to have sustainable diets – foods that are highly nutritious while also being sustainable of the environment.

The major constraintsThere is one major constraint for these dryland cereals and grain legumes that are holding them back reaching their full potential – the value chains are significantly under developed.

With decades of significantly less investment and policy support compared to other crops they have:

▪Yields with the potential to increase approximately 3 times.

▪Multiple uses from food, feed, fodder, biofuels, brewing and consumer goods that are largely untapped.

▪Little development of processed modern convenience food products.

▪Low awareness outside the traditional areas where there is major untapped demand.

If we want to tackle malnutrition, environmental issues like climate change and water scarcity along with poverty, we need to break the divide and bring in more diversity – with Smart Food.

Dryland cereals and grain legumes can make major contributions to this if we make major investments in the whole value chain from breeding through to market development.

These Smart Food crops are highly nutritious and targeting some of the largest micronutrient deficiencies and needs especially of women and children. EG:

Iron, zinc and folic acid – Pearl millet has very high levels and bioavailability studies have shown that they will provide the average person’s daily requirement of iron and zinc.

Escalating levels of diabetes – can be avoided or managed by sorghum and millets because they have low GI.

Calcium – Finger millet has 3 times the amount compared to milk.

=

milletmilk

Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals like millets and sorghum are Smart Food.