Good health associated with millets and sports took centre stage in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the BJP parliamentary party meeting here on Tuesday as he asked MPs to work to promote them.

Making millets, grown by most small farmers in the country, popular amounts to serving the country, Modi told BJP MPs, according to Union minister Pralhad Joshi who briefed reporters.

The prime minister noted that the UN has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets on his government’s request as he called for making the bouquet of grains high on nutrition a popular choice of food for people.

With tens of thousands of foreign delegates expected to attend a large number of meetings associated with the G-20, now being chaired by India, Modi said millets will be on the menu and said these can be used in anganwadis, schools, homes and government meetings as well.

MPs can use millet items in meetings they host, he added.

As over 85 per cent of Indian farmers falling in the category of small farmers grow millets in large numbers, a rise in the consumption of these grains will help them financially, he noted.

Incidentally, the government is hosting a lunch for all MPs on Tuesday in which millets are on the menu.

The prime minister also asked MPs to promote sports meet with special focus on Indian games like kabaddi.

Hosting sports meet has been a BJP initiative in the last few years.