Millets have been the traditional staple crop in Japan. "In Japan, more millet was produced than rice until the first year of the Meiji period (1867),' points out Yumiko Otani, who established in 1982 the International Life and Food Association (ILFA), a Japan-based non-governmental organisation with two major bases in Tokyo and the Yamagata countryside in northeastern Japan.

"Millets saved the lives of many people during the war when food was scarce. Even in the late 1970s many mountain villages grew several varieties of millet and people were healthy and self-sufficient. But, after World War II, millet has disappeared completely from government nutritional guidance, shops and mass media. Millet is about to be forgotten by most Japanese and to disappear from agricultural lands,' warns Otani.

ILFA has started the