Kodo millet (varagu): names, nutrition, benefits and how to cook it

Kodo millet is the grain the Indian Food Composition Tables (IFCT 2017) enter under the name Varagu, food code A017, with the botanical name Paspalum scrobiculatum. The ICAR-IIMR booklet records the plant as at home in the damp habitats that stretch across the tropics and subtropics, that kodo counts as an indigenous cereal of India, and that Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the states growing it. The booklet's other names for it are varagu, haraka and arakalu; it adds that kodo millets contain no gluten and that the grain is very easy to digest.

In the shops it comes two ways: whole grain, which cooks like rice, and flour milled from that grain, which sells under names such as kodra atta, varagu flour or harka flour depending on the state. The flour makes rotis, and the whole grain goes under dal, into upma and pongal, or into the pressure cooker for khichdi. Every name it answers to, with its source beside it, is collected on the varagu in english page, and the next section carries the short version.

IFCT 2017 prints twelve names for kodo millet, and four of them are worth knowing first: varagu in Tamil, arikelu in Telugu, harka in Kannada, and kodra, which serves as the Gujarati and Punjabi name and as the Marathi name in the ICAR-IIMR lists, where IFCT 2017 prints karik instead. Hindi has koden, spelled kodon in the ICAR-IIMR lists; Bengali kodoadhan, Odia kodus, Assamese konidhan and Malayalam koovaragu complete the east and south, while Sanskrit takes kodara from the ICAR-IIMR booklet and Urdu has no name on record. The table below is that IFCT entry with the ICAR-IIMR spellings as notes.

Names are also where kodo gets confused with its neighbours. Little millet is the different grain, the kutki of Hindi, samai of Tamil and samalu of Telugu, and in Tamil speech the two to keep apart are samai, the little millet, and varagu, the kodo. Foxtail millet is another grain again, and ragi's Tamil name kelvaragu borrows the varagu sound from a different plant entirely. Quinoa sits outside the family: the ICAR-IIMR booklet lists the eight millets India grows on rain-fed land and quinoa is not among them, since it is not a millet. Each grain gets its own comparison on the types of millets page.

Source: IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN) local-names list. — means no name recorded in the source.

English: IFCT 2017 prints ‘Varagu’; ‘Kodo millet’ per ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, millets information page (vernacular names). Hindi ‘Kodon’: spelling variant of the IFCT 2017 name ‘Koden’. Marathi ‘Kodra’: ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, millets information page (vernacular names). Bengali ‘Kodo’: ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, millets information page (vernacular names). Odia ‘Kodua’: spelling variant of the IFCT 2017 name ‘Kodus’. Telugu ‘Arika’: ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, millets information page (vernacular names). Malayalam ‘Varagu’: ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Nutritional and health benefits of millets (PDF), vernacular names table. Sanskrit ‘Kodara’: ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Nutritional and health benefits of millets (PDF), vernacular names table.

Four grains share the shelf with kodo millet, and the mix-ups are mostly names. Little millet is its own small grain, answering to samai in Tamil, kutki in Hindi and samalu in Telugu, and the two sit side by side in shops. Foxtail millet is a third grain, kakum in Hindi, kangni in Punjabi, navane in Kannada and korra in Telugu, and like kodo it cooks the way rice does. Ragi, finger millet, is a different plant with its own Tamil name, kelvaragu, and the shared varagu ending is where the two get tangled in speech. Quinoa is the easiest to settle: it is a grain that is not a millet, so it never appears in the ICAR-IIMR booklet's list of the eight millets India commonly grows on rain-fed land. Sizes differ too: kodo grains are small, and none of the four is the same seed.

For 100 g of the raw grain, IFCT 2017 gives 332 kcal (1388 kJ), 8.9 g protein, 2.6 g fat, 66.2 g carbohydrate and 6.4 g fibre. The mineral and vitamin column reads 2.3 mg iron, 15.3 mg calcium, 122 mg magnesium, 94 mg potassium, 3.4 mg sodium, 1.7 mg zinc and 39.5 mcg folate; vitamin C is not reported. Set against the two grains kodo meets in the kitchen: raw milled rice carries 2.8 g fibre, 0.7 mg iron and 19.3 mg magnesium, so kodo leads rice on all three, while whole wheat stays ahead on protein (10.6 g) and fibre (11.2 g).

One figure the tables do not print is a glycemic index for the plain grain. The GI database's kodo entries are meals, not the grain alone: kodo pressure cooked with green gram, whole or split, which measures a millet-pulse dish. Servings worked out for a katori, a roti and a dry cup, plus the full comparison with rice and wheat, are on the kodo millet calories page.

Per 100 g raw, edible portion. Composition: IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN). GI: University of Sydney GI database. — means not reported. These are average values for the food; the label on a pack gives the values for that product.

Every claim made for kodo millet stands on a number in the table above. The fibre, iron and magnesium columns explain the first three: 6.4 g of fibre per 100 g beside rice's 2.8 g, 2.3 mg of iron beside 0.7 mg, and 122 mg of magnesium beside 19.3 mg. The ICAR-IIMR booklet adds B vitamins to the list, niacin, B6 and folic acid among them, and describes the grain as very easy to digest, with a high amount of lecithin and a reputation for strengthening the nervous system; its most specific claim concerns postmenopausal women with signs of cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol, for whom regular consumption of kodo millet is called very beneficial.

On blood sugar the honest position is that no GI figure for the plain grain exists in print, while the 2021 meta-analysis by Anitha and colleagues places kodo within the intermediate band of 55 to 69, where the millets came in 13 to 35 per cent below the high-GI controls, and records that millet-based diets cut fasting and post-meal glucose in people with diabetes. Kodo contains no gluten, which matters to anyone who is gluten intolerant, and the ICMR-NIN guidelines count whole grains and millets among the fibre-rich foods tied to satiety and to steady blood glucose, insulin, cholesterol and triglycerides. All ten benefits, each tied to its figure, are on the kodra benefits page.

Kodo millet itself carries no commonly reported serious side effects; the cautions that do exist concern fibre, thyroid and preparation. Its 6.4 g of fibre per 100 g is a jump for a stomach raised on polished rice, so begin with one katori a day and drink enough water, and back off if gas or bloating stays. The goitre question has been studied for pearl millet, not kodo: a 2024 systematic review covered nine papers, eight of them on pearl millet and one on fonio, and its authors judged the existing evidence too thin to assert that pearl millet in a balanced diet causes goitre in the general population. Kodo appears in none of those papers, so its own thyroid story is unwritten; anyone with a thyroid condition should check with their doctor before making kodo the daily grain. The same goes for diabetes and blood pressure medicines: settle the portion with the doctor, then enjoy the grain. The preparation cautions are on the kodra benefits page.

As a rice stand-in, kodo millet cooks the way rice does: rinse the grains, put them in a pot with water to cover, and simmer until the water has gone and the grains are soft, tasting one before you take the pot off the flame. That cooked grain then carries whatever rice would: dal, sambar, kadhi or curd rice. A katori of it comes from 40 g of dry kodo and holds about 133 kcal, and a measuring cup of dry grain, 200 g, is 664 kcal, which portions out for a family meal. Kodo flour makes rotis at 30 g of flour each, about 100 kcal before the ghee, and since the flour has no gluten the dough needs a softer hand than wheat dough and a splash more water when it cracks.

The one-pot version, with exact numbers, is the site's kodo millet khichdi recipe: a cup of kodo (200 g) with half a cup of split green moong, soaked together for 30 minutes, then into the pressure cooker with 4 cups of hot water, turmeric and a ghee, cumin and hing tempering, six minutes on low once the first whistle sounds, then ten minutes resting for the steam to finish the pot; one pot serves four, at 315 kcal, 10.4 g protein and 5.5 g fibre a bowl. For the daily share, the ICMR-NIN guidelines set the adult millet share at 20-30 per cent of cereals, which on the 250 g cereal plate is 50 to 75 g of dry grain; two katoris of kodo cover it.

Dry kodo millet keeps the way any whole grain does: a sealed container, a cool dry shelf, out of the light. Cooked kodo belongs in the fridge like any leftover, and the UK Food Standards Agency's two-day rule for chilled cooked food applies to it, so eat it within that window or freeze the rest. When you buy, look for clean, unbroken grain, a pack within its date and a shop you trust. Whole grain kept this way lasts for many months, while kodo flour has no published keeping time, so buy flour in sizes you will mill through quickly and smell it before use. Pair the grain with the kodo millet khichdi recipe, where moong dal, ghee and spices do the flavouring, or use it anywhere rice goes.

What is kodo millet?

Kodo millet is the small Indian grain IFCT 2017 enters under the name Varagu, food code A017, botanically Paspalum scrobiculatum; per 100 g the raw grain gives 332 kcal, 8.9 g protein and 6.4 g fibre. The ICAR-IIMR booklet counts it among India's indigenous cereals, grown in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It cooks like rice, and its names, nutrition and benefits each have their own page on this site.

What is kodra?

Kodra is the Gujarati and Punjabi word for kodo millet, and the Marathi name the ICAR-IIMR lists print. The same grain goes by varagu in Tamil, arikelu in Telugu and harka in Kannada, and IFCT 2017 records it as Varagu with the botanical name Paspalum scrobiculatum. Searches for kodra atta mean kodo millet flour, the whole grain milled, and the grain behind every one of those words is the one this page covers.

Where kodo millet is grown in india?

The ICAR-IIMR booklet names three growing regions in India: Uttar Pradesh up north, and Kerala and Tamil Nadu down south; it adds that the plant favours damp habitats across the tropics and subtropics. All twelve names the tables print for the grain are on the varagu in english page.

What is kodra atta?

Kodra atta is kodo millet flour, the whole grain milled, and when the milling keeps the bran it carries the grain's 6.4 g of fibre per 100 g with it. The flour makes rotis, at about 30 g of flour to a roti and roughly 100 kcal each, and because it has no gluten the dough behaves differently from wheat dough; roll gently and add a splash more water if it cracks.

Which kodo millet is best?

A clean, unbroken whole grain in a sealed pack within its date, from a shop you trust, kept dry and airtight at home. No printed source ranks brands or varieties of kodo millet, and the plant behind every pack name is the same, Paspalum scrobiculatum, so the language on the label changes nothing about the grain.

Difference between kodo millet and foxtail millet?

They are two different small millets. Kodo millet is varagu in Tamil, koden in Hindi and harka in Kannada; foxtail millet answers to korra in Telugu, kakum in Hindi, navane in Kannada and kangni in Punjabi, all from the ICAR-IIMR page. Both cook like rice, but the plants are not the same, and the types of millets page sets out how each one cooks.