Millets figure prominently among rain fed Crops. India is the largest producer of Various types of Millets, which are referred as coarse cereals. However, realizing the nutrient richness of these grains they are now considered as “nutri-cereals”. These grains are well known for their superior quality, nutritional security and human health. When one looks at the traditional and earlier food habits in the country, it would be realized that one or the other small millets dominated in the past in almost every region.
The millets are a group of highly variable small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for both human food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one.
Millets are the most important crops in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in India, Nigeria, and Niger), with 97% of millet production in developing countries. The crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high temperature conditions.
The most widely grown Grain is pearl millet, which is an important crop in India and parts of Africa. Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species. In the developed world, millets are less important. For example, in the United States the only significant crop is proso millet, which is mostly grown for bird seed.
While millets are indigenous to many parts of the world, It is most likely had an evolutionary origin in tropical western Africa, as that is where the greatest number of both wild and cultivated forms exist. Millets have been important food staples in human history, particularly in Asia and Africa, and they have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years.
