**2.2. Agronomic benefits**

decade ago, the rate of adoption of improved pearl millet cultivars by farmers was 65% in India

**Country** Traditional milletsa **Tef Fonio (Acha) Total**

India 10,910,000 10,910,000 Ethiopia 848,956b 4,418,642 5,267,598 Nigeria 5,000,000 90,000 5,090,000 Niger 2,995,000 6,000 3,001,000 China 1,746,000 1,746,000 Mali 1,152,331 22,090 1,174,421 Burkina Faso 1,078,570 19,887 1,098,457 Sudan (former) 1,090,000 1,090,000 Guinea 215,000 429,000 644,000 Chad 582,000 582,000 Senegal 572,155 1,030 573,185 Russia 418,844 418,844 USA 418,145 418,145 Tanzania 322,731 322,731 Pakistan 310,000 310,000 Nepal 305,588 305,588 Uganda 228,000 228,000 Myanmar 185,000 185,000 Ghana 155,131 155,131 Cameroon 97,000 97,000 others 1,233,696 19,000 1,252,696 Total production 29,864,147 4,418,642c 587,007 34,869,796 **Total area (ha)** 33,118,792 3,016,521 554,451 36,689,764

**<sup>d</sup>** 0.90 1.47 1.06 0.95

Traditional millets include finger millet, foxtail millet, Indian barnyard millet, Japanese barnyard millet, kodo millet,

Reference [7,9] [9] [7]

d Average global yield except for tef where it is the national average yield for Ethiopia.

**Table 2.** The top 20 millet-producing countries in the world in 2013.

but below 10% in some African countries [8].

642 Abiotic and Biotic Stress in Plants - Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

**Production (ton)**

**Yield (ton ha–1)**

Only for finger millet.

Only for Ethiopia.

little millet, pearl millet and proso millet.

a

b

c

Millets are resilient to the extreme climatic and soil conditions prevalent in the semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. The similarities of millets are that they are all grown under extreme environmental conditions, especially those of inadequate moisture and poor soil fertility which are poorly suited to the major crops of the world [11] (Table 1). Proso millet is considered to have been domesticated before rice in China, based on the extreme resistance of this millet to drought [12, 13]. In addition to its resistance to drought, proso millet escapes the terminal drought that normally occurs late in the growing season since it matures in only three months; hence, proso millet is considered to be a millet with low water requirements [6].

Similar to maize and sorghum, millets possess a C4 photosynthesis system [14, 15]; hence, they prevent photorespiration and, as a consequence, efficiently utilize the scarce moisture present in the semi-arid regions. Since C4 plants are able to close their stomata for long periods, they can significantly reduce moisture loss through the leaves. In addition to its tolerance to drought, tef is tolerant to waterlogging especially in poorly drained soils where other crops such as maize and wheat could not survive. Foxtail millet is also considered to be a model plant for biofuel studies [16]. A novel peptide isolated from foxtail millet and barnyard millet has shown strong antifungal properties as has one from finger millet which is especially effective and works against four fungus species, namely *Alternaria, Trichoderma, Botrytis* and *Fusarium* [17, 18].
