Bill Gates finds millets interesting: 'Why aren’t they eaten everywhere?'

Writing on his blog, Bill Gates said that millets had been experiencing a resurgence, through consumers and farmers.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said that he is extremely fascinated by millets and thinks that they can play an important role in eradicating issues such as malnutrition in different parts of the world. Writing on his blog, Bill Gates said that the crop had been experiencing a resurgence, through consumers and farmers.

Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during the 2024 CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas. (Bloomberg)

"Millets have been around for centuries, but they’re currently experiencing a resurgence—both for consumers who enjoy their taste and for farmers who appreciate how reliable they are to grow," Bill Gates wrote in his blog.

"They can also help us fight malnutrition. When Europeans first arrived in West Africa, they called fonio "hungry rice" because it grew so quickly that you could eat it at times when other foods weren’t available. Today, many people would probably call it a "superfood" he added.

He also wrote, “Fonio, in particular, is like farming on easy mode. You wait until a good rain comes, lightly till the soil to loosen it up, and then scatter the seeds on the ground. Two months later, you harvest the grain. As climate change continues to make growing seasons more unpredictable, crops like the millets will become more and more important.”

"Fonio is just one part of a much bigger family of remarkable ancient grains: the millets. Perhaps you’ve heard of finger millet. It’s a staple in Uganda and parts of Kenya and Tanzania, and it’s beloved in India where it is called ragi. Or maybe you’ve heard of teff, a longtime favorite in Ethiopia where it’s used to make injera," he continued.