Editing Millet (section)

{{Short description|Group of grasses (food grain)}}
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{{Other uses|Millet (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
[[File:Grain millet, early grain fill, Tifton, 7-3-02.jpg|thumb|[[Pearl millet]]]]

'''Millets''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|l|ɪ|t|s}})<ref name="Oxford Dictionaries">{{cite web |title=Definition of millet |url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/millet |website=Oxford Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University |access-date=21 July 2017}}</ref> are a highly varied group of small-seeded [[grasses]], widely grown around the world as [[cereal]] crops or grains for [[fodder]] and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe [[Paniceae]]<!--within the grass family [[Poaceae]]-->.

Millets are important crops in the [[Semi-arid climate|semiarid tropics]] of Asia and Africa, especially in [[India]], [[Mali]], [[Nigeria]], and [[Niger]], with 97% of production in [[Developing country|developing countries]].<ref name="HCS">{{cite journal |last1=McDonough |first1=Cassandrea M. |last2=Rooney |first2=Lloyd W. |last3=Serna-Saldivar |first3=Sergio O. |title=The Millets |journal=Food Science and Technology: Handbook of Cereal Science and Technology |volume=99 |edition=2nd |pages=177–210 |publisher=CRC Press |year=2000}}</ref> The crop is favoured for its [[Agricultural productivity|productivity]] and short growing season under hot dry conditions.<ref name="NPR"/> The millets are sometimes understood to include the widely cultivated [[sorghum]];<ref name=BSBI07/> apart from that, [[pearl millet]] is the most commonly cultivated of the millets.<ref name="FAO">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/W1808E/w1808e0l.htm |title=The World Sorghum and Millet Economies: Facts, Trends and Outlook |chapter=Annex II: Relative importance of millet species, 1992–94 |year=1996 |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations |isbn=978-92-5-103861-1}}</ref> [[Finger millet]], [[proso millet]], and [[foxtail millet]] are other important crop species.
Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years and potentially had "a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies".<ref name="NPR">{{cite web |title=Millet: How A Trendy Ancient Grain Turned Nomads Into Farmers |last=Cherfas |first=Jeremy |date=23 December 2015 |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/23/460559052/millet-how-a-trendy-ancient-grain-turned-nomads-into-farmers |website=National Public Radio |series=The Salt |access-date=4 May 2018}}</ref>