As a responsible organization that is building a sustainable future for India, ITC was the first conglomerate to declare its unwavering support to the millets revolution in India.

To inspire visible change at every level, the brief of Mission Millets was to attack the awareness and consideration problem with millets at every level while simultaneously developing the entire millets value chain in the country.

To do this, our objectives were:

1. Educate and enable farmers on how to grow millets sustainably and profitably

2. Inspire consumers to see millets as a tasty, healthy and very versatile choice

3. Launch a 'good-for-you' millets portfolio of products for every meal type that is affordable, easy to cook and tasty.

Envisioned to be a mass movement across India, Mission Millets was a rallying cry towards achieving sustainability that involves everyone - farmers to consumers, government authorities, to research bodies, trade community to news media.

Mission Millets is a comprehensive strategic program that goes beyond regular brand campaigns and attacks the adoption problem at every possible segment of the value chain and audience cohorts. As an integrated program, Mission Millets combined a massive farmer activation program across 5 states with a robust consumer awareness program done with over 20+ leading media networks along with the launch of tasty, healthy and versatile millets products for every occasion in the day by the ITC Foods Business. Mission Millets was also responsible for repositioning of the humble millet to be a food items synonymous with great taste.

The core principle for Mission Millets was to deliver real change by creating real value for both farmers and consumers with millets. This is why, to fulfil its corporate purpose of “Help India Eat Better”, ITC launched Mission Millets and addressed the issues with the current millets ecosystem with a three pronged approach:

1. Enable farmers to farm Millets sustainably: In this stage, the objective was to provide the farming community with every form of assistance needed to switch to millets profitably

2. Educate, empower, and encourage consumers to choose millets: In this stage, the objective was to work with leading media platforms and key opinion leaders to mould public opinion about millets as a tasty, healthy and versatile option

3. Inspire adoption amongst consumers: In the final leg, Mission Millets focused on making the switch to millets an easy choice with the help of outstanding yet affordable products

Mission Millets had a three pronged approach:

Enabling farmers:

1000+ local millet crop demonstrations and training sessions in 5 states

Developed Farmer Producer Organizations for market access and technology.

Collaborated with institutes for knowledge transfer, provided mobile app solutions, and developed value chains for 4 millet crops.

Empower customers:

ITC launched a 3-month campaign with 20+ media platforms to educate people, featuring experts and government representatives while the Mission Millets "Rath" toured 4 states for farmer education. A coffee table book and 100+ content pieces were published on millet benefits along with chef-made recipes that addressed taste concerns. A commemorative stamp in partnership with Indiapost marked the significance of the initiative.

Inspire adoption:

Mission Millets offered affordable, high-quality millet products for every meal, including snacks and staples. It introduced millet-based dishes at ITC Hotels and G20 summit, curated recipes at Cloud kitchens, and sampled millets in 350,000 households.

The integrated approach resulted in ITC Foods emerging as the clear thought leader with awareness scores of 71% in Affluent India and complete dominance in SOV with 75%.

Total Media Reach Garnered: 69.8 Billion

Imagery scores for ITC soared with highest in category numbers (almost 3X of closest competitor Nestle):

o Has a range of Millet based products (85%)

o Works with farmers to produce millets (82%)

o Has good quality of products (81%)

o Has launched a range of nutritional products (82%)

Consumers made the switch to millets easily as ITC’s millets portfolio saw a massive 164% increase in sales.

• 15% of new farmers opted for millets in their crop cycle through these initiatives, especially in dry and climate-prone areas

• In UP, this increment in yield directly translated to up to 9% increase in gross income for farmers