Small Millets: The Next-Generation Smart Crops in the Modern Era of Climate Change

Millets are coarse cereals belonging to the family Poaceae, which is cultivated since the ancient period of civilization. Among different millets, small or minor millets are treated as neglected crops due to their low-yield potential compared to major millets (sorghum and pearl millet) and fine cereals (rice, wheat and maize). In spite of their versatile qualities, small millets remained underutilized due to institutional promotion in favour of fine cereals. Recently, these coarse cereals are re-evaluated as ‘nutri-cereals’ considering their composition and nutritional value. In the present consequences of adverse impacts of climate change, the small millets also attracted the attention of growers and policy-makers as they are less demanding to external inputs, drought-tolerant and register a comparatively lower carbon footprint…