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A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize. Edible grains from other plant families, such as amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres.
Cereals were domesticated in the Neolithic around 8,000 years ago. Wheat and barley were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent; rice and some millets were domesticated in East Asia, while sorghum and other millets were domesticated in West Africa. Maize was domesticated by Indigenous peoples of the Americas in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. In the 20th century, cereal productivity was greatly increased by the Green Revolution. This increase in production has accompanied a growing international trade, with some countries producing large portions of the cereal supply for other countries.
Cereals provide food eaten directly as whole grains, usually cooked, or they are ground to flour and made into bread, porridge, and other products. Cereals have a high starch content, enabling them to be fermented into alcoholic drinks such as beer. Cereal farming has a substantial environmental impact, and is often produced in high-intensity monocultures. The environmental harms can be mitigated by sustainable practices which reduce the impact on soil and improve biodiversity, such as no-till farming and intercropping.
HistoryEdit
OriginsEdit
Wheat, barley, rye, and oats were gathered and eaten in the Fertile Crescent during the early Neolithic. Cereal grains 19,000 years old have been found at the Ohalo II site in Israel, with charred remnants of wild wheat and barley.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
During the same period, farmers in China began to farm rice and millet, using human-made floods and fires as part of their cultivation regimen.<ref name="NatGeo">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The use of soil conditioners, including manure, fish, compost and ashes, appears to have begun early, and developed independently in areas of the world including Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, and Eastern Asia.<ref name="FertMan">Template:Cite book</ref>
Cereals that became modern barley and wheat were domesticated some 8,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent.<ref name="Purugganan Fuller 2009">Template:Cite journal</ref> Millets and rice were domesticated in East Asia, while sorghum and other millets were domesticated in sub-Saharan West Africa, primarily as feed for livestock.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Maize arose from a single domestication in Mesoamerica about 9,000 years ago.<ref name="Mat">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In these agricultural regions, religion was often shaped by the divinity associated with the grain and harvests. In the Mesopotamian creation myth, an era of civilization is inaugurated by the grain goddess Ashnan.<ref>Template:Cite book (pdf)</ref> The Roman goddess Ceres presided over agriculture, grain crops, fertility, and motherhood;<ref name="Room 1990">Template:Cite book</ref> the term cereal is derived from Latin cerealis, "of grain", originally meaning "of [the goddess] Ceres".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Several gods of antiquity combined agriculture and war: the Hittite Sun goddess of Arinna, the Canaanite Lahmu and the Roman Janus.<ref name="jhom-bread">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Complex civilizations arose where cereal agriculture created a surplus, allowing for part of the harvest to be appropriated from farmers, allowing power to be concentrated in cities.<ref name="Mayshar Moav Pascali 2022">Template:Cite journal</ref>
ModernEdit
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During the second half of the 20th century, there was a significant increase in the production of high-yield cereal crops worldwide, especially wheat and rice, due to the Green Revolution, a technological change funded by development organizations.<ref name="FAOGreenRevolution">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The strategies developed by the Green Revolution included mechanized tilling, monoculture, nitrogen fertilizers, and breeding of new strains of seeds. These innovations focused on fending off starvation and increasing yield-per-plant, and were very successful in raising overall yields of cereal grains, but paid less attention to nutritional quality.<ref name="Sands Morris Dratz Pilgeram 2009">Template:Cite journal</ref> These modern high-yield cereal crops tend to have low-quality proteins, with essential amino acid deficiencies, are high in carbohydrates, and lack balanced essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and other quality factors.<ref name="Sands Morris Dratz Pilgeram 2009"/> So-called ancient grains and heirloom varieties have seen an increase in popularity with the "organic" movements of the early 21st century, but there is a tradeoff in yield-per-plant, putting pressure on resource-poor areas as food crops are replaced with cash crops.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
BiologyEdit
Cereals are grasses, in the Poaceae family, that produce edible grains. A cereal grain is botanically a caryopsis, a fruit where the seed coat is fused with the pericarp.<ref name="Juliano Tuaño 2019">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks.<ref name="Clayton">Template:Cite book</ref> The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation that protects the growing meristem from grazing animals.<ref name="Clayton"/><ref name="BSBI13">Template:Cite book</ref> The flowers are usually hermaphroditic, with the exception of maize, and mainly anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role.<ref name="Clayton"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Among the best-known cereals are maize, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, oat, rye and triticale.Template:Sfn Some other grains are colloquially called cereals, even though they are not grasses; these pseudocereals include buckwheat, quinoa, and amaranth.Template:Sfn
CultivationEdit
All cereal crops are cultivated in a similar way. Most are annual, so after sowing they are harvested just once.<ref name="Barr-2019"/> An exception is rice, which although usually treated as an annual can survive as a perennial, producing a ratoon crop.<ref name="IRRI rice plant">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cereals adapted to a temperate climate, such as barley, oats, rye, spelt, triticale, and wheat, are called cool-season cereals. Those preferring a tropical climate, such as millet and sorghum, are called warm-season cereals.<ref name="Barr-2019"/>Template:Sfn<ref name="Best for grazing">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cool-season cereals, especially rye, followed by barley, are hardy; they grow best in fairly cool weather, and stop growing, depending on variety, when the temperature goes above around Template:Convert. Warm-season cereals, in contrast, require hot weather and cannot tolerate frost.<ref name="Barr-2019">Template:Cite book</ref> Cool-season cereals can be grown in highlands in the tropics, where they sometimes deliver several crops in a single year.<ref name="Barr-2019"/>
PlantingEdit
In the tropics, warm-season cereals can be grown at any time of the year. In temperate zones, these cereals can only be grown when there is no frost. Most cereals are planted in tilled soils, which reduces weeds and breaks up the surface of a field. Most cereals need regular water in the early part of their life cycle. Rice is commonly grown in flooded fields,<ref name="IRRI water mgmt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> though some strains are grown on dry land.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other warm climate cereals, such as sorghum, are adapted to arid conditions.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Cool-season cereals are grown mainly in temperate zones. These cereals often have both winter varieties for autumn sowing, winter dormancy, and early summer harvesting, and spring varieties planted in spring and harvested in late summer. Winter varieties have the advantage of using water when it is plentiful, and permitting a second crop after the early harvest. They flower only in spring as they require vernalization, exposure to cold for a specific period, fixed genetically. Spring crops grow when it is warmer but less rainy, so they may need irrigation.<ref name="Barr-2019"/>
GrowthEdit
Cereal strains are bred for consistency and resilience to the local environmental conditions. The greatest constraints on yield are plant diseases, especially rusts (mostly the Puccinia spp.) and powdery mildews.<ref name = "Marienlyst" >{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Fusarium head blight, caused by Fusarium graminearum, is a significant limitation on a wide variety of cereals.<ref name="Disaster">Template:Cite journal</ref> Other pressures include pest insects and wildlife like rodents and deer.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In conventional agriculture, some farmers will apply fungicides or pesticides
HarvestingEdit
Annual cereals die when they have come to seed, and dry up. Harvesting begins once the plants and seeds are dry enough. Harvesting in mechanized agricultural systems is by combine harvester, a machine which drives across the field in a single pass in which it cuts the stalks and then threshes and winnows the grain.<ref name="Barr-2019"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In traditional agricultural systems, mostly in the Global South, harvesting may be by hand, using tools such as scythes and grain cradles.<ref name="Barr-2019"/> Leftover parts of the plant can be allowed to decompose, or collected as straw; this can be used for animal bedding, mulch, and a growing medium for mushrooms.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is used in crafts such as building with cob or straw-bale construction.<ref name="Walker Thomson Maskell 2020">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Rice-combine-harvester, Katori-city, Japan.jpg
A small-scale rice combine harvester in Japan
Preprocessing and storageEdit
If cereals are not completely dry when harvested, such as when the weather is rainy, the stored grain will be spoilt by mould fungi such as Aspergillus and Penicillium.<ref name="Barr-2019"/><ref name="Wiley 2016 pp. 364–375">Template:Cite book</ref> This can be prevented by drying it artificially. It may then be stored in a grain elevator or silo, to be sold later. Grain stores need to be constructed to protect the grain from damage by pests such as seed-eating birds and rodents.<ref name="Barr-2019"/>
- Grain elevators on a farm in Israel (cropped).jpg
Grain elevators on a farm in Israel
ProcessingEdit
When the cereal is ready to be distributed, it is sold to a manufacturing facility that first removes the outer layers of the grain for subsequent milling for flour or other processing steps, to produce foods such as flour, oatmeal, or pearl barley.<ref name="Papageorgiou Skendi 2018">Template:Cite book</ref> In developing countries, processing may be traditional, in artisanal workshops, as with tortilla production in Central America.<ref name="Astier Odenthal Patricio Orozco-Ramírez 2019">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Most cereals can be processed in a variety of ways. Rice processing, for instance, can create whole-grain or polished rice, or rice flour. Removal of the germ increases the longevity of grain in storage.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some grains can be malted, a process of activating enzymes in the seed to cause sprouting that turns the complex starches into sugars before drying.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These sugars can be extracted for industrial uses and further processing, such as for making industrial alcohol,<ref name="Jacobs 1938"/> beer,<ref name="Barth 2014"/> whisky,<ref name="cfr5.22">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or rice wine,<ref name="Borrell 2009"/> or sold directly as a sugar.<ref name="Briggs 1978 pp. 560–586">Template:Cite book</ref> In the 20th century, industrial processes developed around chemically altering the grain, to be used for other processes. In particular, maize can be altered to produce food additives, such as corn starch<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and high-fructose corn syrup.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Effects on the environmentEdit
ImpactsEdit
Cereal production has a substantial impact on the environment. Tillage can lead to soil erosion and increased runoff.<ref name="Takken Govers Jetten 2001">Template:Cite journal</ref> Irrigation consumes large quantities of water; its extraction from lakes, rivers, or aquifers may have multiple environmental effects, such as lowering the water table and cause salination of aquifers.<ref name="Sundquist 2007">Template:Cite book</ref> Fertilizer production contributes to global warming,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and its use can lead to pollution and eutrophication of waterways.<ref name="Werner 2002">Template:Cite book</ref> Arable farming uses large amounts of fossil fuel, releasing greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Pesticide usage can cause harm to wildlife, such as to bees.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
MitigationsEdit
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Some of the impacts of growing cereals can be mitigated by changing production practices. Tillage can be reduced by no-till farming, such as by direct drilling of cereal seeds, or by developing and planting perennial crop varieties so that annual tilling is not required. Rice can be grown as a ratoon crop;<ref name="IRRI rice plant"/> and other researchers are exploring perennial cool-season cereals, such as kernza, being developed in the US.<ref name="Kaplan 2021">Template:Cite news</ref>
Fertilizer and pesticide usage may be reduced in some polycultures, growing several crops in a single field at the same time.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Fossil fuel-based nitrogen fertilizer usage can be reduced by intercropping cereals with legumes which fix nitrogen.<ref name="Jensen Carlsson Hauggaard-Nielsen 2020">Template:Cite journal</ref> Greenhouse gas emissions may be cut further by more efficient irrigation or by water harvesting methods like contour trenching that reduce the need for irrigation, and by breeding new crop varieties.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
UsesEdit
Direct consumptionEdit
Some cereals such as rice require little preparation before human consumption. For example, to make plain cooked rice, raw milled rice is washed and boiled.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Foods such as porridgeTemplate:Sfn and muesli may be made largely of whole cereals, especially oats, whereas commercial breakfast cereals such as granola may be highly processed and combined with sugars, oils, and other products.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Flour-based foodsEdit
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Cereals can be ground to make flour. Wheat flour is the main ingredient of bread and pasta.<ref name="Vaclavik Christian 2008">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="FAO Wheat for bread">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Maize flour has been important in Mesoamerica since ancient times, with foods such as Mexican tortillas and tamales.Template:Sfn Rye flour is a constituent of bread in central and northern Europe,<ref name="Medieval Rye">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while rice flour is common in Asia.Template:Sfn
A cereal grain consists of starchy endosperm, germ, and bran. Wholemeal flour contains all of these; white flour is without some or all of the germ or bran.<ref name="Better Health"/>Template:Sfn
AlcoholEdit
Because cereals have a high starch content, they are often used to make industrial alcohol<ref name="Jacobs 1938">Template:Cite book</ref> and alcoholic drinks by fermentation. For instance, beer is produced by brewing and fermenting starch, mainly from cereal grains—most commonly malted barley.<ref name="Barth 2014">Template:Cite book</ref> Rice wines such as Japanese sake are brewed in Asia;Template:Sfn a fermented rice and honey wine was made in China some 9,000 years ago.<ref name="Borrell 2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Animal feedEdit
Cereals and their related byproducts such as hay are routinely fed to farm animals. Common cereals as animal food include maize, barley, wheat, and oats. Moist grains may be treated chemically or made into silage; mechanically flattened or crimped, and kept in airtight storage until used; or stored dry with a moisture content of less than 14%.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Commercially, grains are often combined with other materials and formed into feed pellets.<ref name="Thomas van Vliet van der Poel 1998">Template:Cite journal</ref>
NutritionEdit
Whole-grain and processedEdit
As whole grains, cereals provide carbohydrates, polyunsaturated fats, protein, vitamins, and minerals. When processed by the removal of the bran and germ, all that remains is the starchy endosperm.<ref name="Better Health">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In some developing countries, cereals constitute a majority of daily sustenance. In developed countries, cereal consumption is moderate and varied but still substantial, primarily in the form of refined and processed grains.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Amino acid balanceEdit
Some cereals are deficient in the essential amino acid lysine, obliging vegetarian cultures to combine their diet of cereal grains with legumes to obtain a balanced diet. Many legumes, however, are deficient in the essential amino acid methionine, which grains contain. Thus, a combination of legumes with grains forms a well-balanced diet for vegetarians. Such combinations include dal (lentils) with rice by South Indians and Bengalis, beans with maize tortillas, tofu with rice, and peanut butter with wholegrain wheat bread (as sandwiches) in several other cultures, including the Americas.<ref name="vogel301">Template:Cite book.</ref> For feeding animals, the amount of crude protein measured in grains is expressed as grain crude protein concentration.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Comparison of major cerealsEdit
| CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
Per 45g serving | Barley | Maize | Millet | Oats | Rice | Rye | Sorgh. | Wheat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | kcal | 159 | 163 | 170 | 175 | 165 | 152 | 148 | 153 | |
| Protein | g | 5.6 | 3.6 | 5.0 | 7.6 | 3.4 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 6.1 | |
| Lipid | g | 1 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.1 | |
| Carbohydrate | g | 33 | 35 | 31 | 30 | 31 | 34 | 32 | 32 | |
| Fibre | g | 7.8 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 4.8 | 1.6 | 6.8 | 3.0 | 4.8 | |
| Calcium | mg | 15 | 3 | 4 | 24 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 15 | |
| Iron | mg | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.6 | |
| Magnesium | mg | 60 | 57 | 51 | 80 | 52 | 50 | 74 | 65 | |
| Phosphorus | mg | 119 | 108 | 128 | 235 | 140 | 149 | 130 | 229 | |
| Potassium | mg | 203 | 129 | 88 | 193 | 112 | 230 | 163 | 194 | |
| Sodium | mg | 5 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Zinc | mg | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 1.9 | |
| Thiamine (B1) | mg | 0.29 | 0.17 | 0.19 | 0.34 | 0.24 | 0.14 | 0.15 | 0.19 | |
| Riboflavin (B2) | mg | 0.13 | 0.09 | 0.13 | 0.06 | 0.04 | 0.11 | 0.04 | 0.05 | |
| Niacin (B3) | mg | 2 | 1.6 | 2.1 | 0.4 | 2.9 | 1.9 | 1.7 | 3.0 | |
| Pantothenic acid (B5) | mg | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.4 | |
| Pyridoxine (B6) | mg | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.05 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | |
| Folic acid (B9) | mcg | 9 | 11 | 38 | 25 | 10 | 17 | 9 | 19 | |
Production and trade commoditiesEdit
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Cereals constitute the world's largest commodities by tonnage, whether measured by production<ref name="IDRC"/> or by international trade. Several major producers of cereals dominate the market.<ref name="FAO 2023"/> Because of the scale of the trade, some countries have become reliant on imports, thus cereals pricing or availability can have outsized impacts on countries with a food trade imbalance and thus food security.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Speculation, as well as other compounding production and supply factors leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, created rapid inflation of grain prices during the 2007–2008 world food price crisis.<ref name="WFSFAO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Other disruptions, such as climate change or war related changes to supply or transportation can create further food insecurity; for example the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 disrupted Ukrainian and Russian wheat supplies causing a global food price crisis in 2022 that affected countries heavily dependent on wheat flour.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref><ref name="Time">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ProductionEdit
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Cereals are the world's largest crops by tonnage of grain produced.<ref name="IDRC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Three cereals, maize, wheat, and rice, together accounted for 89% of all cereal production worldwide in 2012, and 43% of the global supply of food energy in 2009,<ref name="prodstat">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while the production of oats and rye has drastically fallen from their 1960s levels.<ref name="Ritchie-2013"/>
Other cereals not included in the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization statistics include wild rice, which is grown in small amounts in North America, and teff, an ancient grain that is a staple in Ethiopia.<ref name="Wrigley-2016"/> Teff is grown in sub-Saharan Africa as a grass primarily for feeding horses. It is high in fiber and protein. Its flour is often used to make injera. It can be eaten as a warm breakfast cereal like farina with a chocolate or nutty flavor.<ref name="Wrigley-2016"/>
- Production Of Cereals (2021).svg
Production of cereals worldwide, by country in 2021
The table shows the annual production of cereals in 1961, 1980, 2000, 2010, and 2019/2020.Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Ritchie-2013">Template:Cite journal</ref>
| Grain | Worldwide production
(millions of metric tons) |
Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 1980 | 2000 | 2010 | 2019/20 | |||
| Maize (corn) | 205 | 397 | 592 | 852 | 1,148 | A staple food of people in the Americas, Africa, and of livestock worldwide; often called corn in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. A large portion of maize crops are grown for purposes other than human consumption.<ref name="Wrigley-2016">Template:Cite book</ref> | |
| RiceTemplate:Efn Production is in milled terms. | 285 | 397 | 599 | 697 | 755 | The primary cereal of tropical and some temperate regions. Staple food in most of Brazil, other parts of Latin America and some other Portuguese-descended cultures, parts of Africa (even more before the Columbian exchange), most of South Asia and the Far East. Largely overridden by breadfruit (a dicot tree) during the South Pacific's part of the Austronesian expansion.<ref name="Wrigley-2016"/> | |
| Wheat | 222 | 440 | 585 | 641 | 768 | The primary cereal of temperate regions. It has a worldwide consumption but it is a staple food of North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil and much of the Greater Middle East. Wheat gluten-based meat substitutes are important in the Far East (albeit less than tofu) and are said to resemble meat texture more than others.<ref name="Wrigley-2016"/> | |
| Barley | 72 | 157 | 133 | 123 | 159 | Grown for malting and livestock on land too poor or too cold for wheat.<ref name="Wrigley-2016"/> | |
| Sorghum | 41 | 57 | 56 | 60 | 58 | Important staple food in Asia and Africa and popular worldwide for livestock.<ref name="Wrigley-2016"/> | |
| Millet | 26 | 25 | 28 | 33 | 28 | A group of similar cereals that form an important staple food in Asia and Africa.<ref name="Wrigley-2016" /> | |
| Oats | 50 | 41 | 26 | 20 | 23 | Popular worldwide as a breakfast food, such as in porridge, and livestock feed.<ref name="WGC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
| Triticale | 0 | 0.17 | 9 | 14 | — | Hybrid of wheat and rye, grown similarly to rye.<ref name="Wrigley-2016" /> | |
| Rye | 35 | 25 | 20 | 12 | 13 | Important in cold climates. Rye grain is used for flour, bread, beer, crispbread, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder.<ref name="Wrigley-2016" /> | |
| Fonio | 0.18 | 0.15 | 0.31 | 0.56 | — | Several varieties are grown as food crops in Africa.<ref name="Wrigley-2016" /> | |
TradeEdit
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Cereals are the most traded commodities by quantity in 2021, with wheat, maize, and rice the main cereals involved. The Americas and Europe are the largest exporters, and Asia is the largest importer.<ref name="FAO 2023"/> The largest exporter of maize is the US, while India is the largest exporter of rice. China is the largest importer of maize and of rice. Many other countries trade cereals, both as exporters and as importers.<ref name="FAO 2023">Template:Cite book</ref> Cereals are traded as futures on world commodity markets, helping to mitigate the risks of changes in price for example, if harvests fail.<ref name="Atkin 2024">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Main Traded Cereals, Top Importers And Exporters (Quantities, 2021).svg
Main traded cereals, top import, export in 2021