Cropscapes of change: analysing the revival of ancient grains in a globalizing India

This paper traces the resurgence of millets in India, from their role as staple grains in the drylands of central and southern India to their contemporary rebranding as climate-resilient, health-conscious superfoods. Once sidelined by the Green Revolution’s emphasis on rice and wheat, millets are now promoted by policymakers and embraced by urban consumers as solutions to food insecurity, environmental degradation, and chronic disease. Focusing on Karnataka, the article examines how this revival is shaped by wellness discourse, shifting state policies, and the aesthetics of ethical consumption. Using a cropscape approach, it explores how agricultural histories and food imaginaries are reassembled in service of modern food movements. Yet this revival often echoes earlier techno-solutionist logics, obscuring the structural roots of malnutrition and agrarian distress. As millets are commodified to align with dominant food regimes, they risk losing the practices and knowledges that once sustained them – revealing a central paradox: the more millets are made to fit the future, the further they may drift from their past.