**3. Drought: A major challenge to millet cultivation**

Biotic stresses such as insect pests and diseases are a cause for substantial yield losses to diverse types of millets. However, abiotic stresses are the biggest contributor to losses every year. Although, in general, millets perform better than cereals such as wheat and rice in semi-arid environments, these challenging climatic and soil conditions are by no means an optimum environment for millet cultivation. In semi-arid and arid environments where millets are the dominant crop, drought or inadequate moisture is the major abiotic stress affecting produc‐ tivity. Studies in pearl millet showed that drought impacts include growth, yield, membrane integrity, pigment, osmotic adjustment, water relations and photosynthetic activity [40].
