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Abstract
Millets have traditionally played an important role in farming and food culture in many regions of the world, including Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with India being the world’s largest producer of these crops. Millets mature quickly, a valuable trait important for rain-fed farming, and require relatively few inputs compared to major cereals. They grow under a range of day lengths and in poor soil, making them an attractive crop for marginal farming environments. In addition to these agronomic advantages, millets can offer other benefits in ecological, nutritional, and socioeconomic areas. Despite these potential benefits, however, in India overall production of millets has increased over the past few decades, from 7.7 Mil tons in 1961 to 10.7 in 2012, but the area dedicated to Minor Millets has fallen.