In the first post of the e-Symposium on ‘Carrying forward the promise of International Year of Millets’, Manan Bhan introduces the concept of ‘embodied land area’, which accounts for land use at the point of consumption and places the burden of negative impacts on consumers rather than producers. He notes the decline in land area under use for the production of millets and sorghum, and the potential to expand millet cultivation, trade and consumption in a sustainable manner to benefit both producers and consumers.