Abstract
Small millets are nutrient-rich food sources traditionally grown and consumed by subsistence farmers in Asia and Africa. They include finger millet (Eleusine coracana), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), barnyard millet (Echinochloa spp.), and little millet (Panicum sumatrense). Local farmers value the small millets for their nutritional and health benefits, tolerance to extreme stress including drought, and ability to grow under low nutrient input conditions, ideal in an era of climate change and steadily depleting natural resources. Little scientific attention has been paid to these crops, hence they have been termed “orphan cereals.” Despite this challenge, an advantageous quality of the small millets is that they continue to be grown in remote regions of the world which has preserved their biodiversity, providing breeders with unique alleles for crop improvement. The purpose of this review, first, is to highlight the diverse traits of each small millet species that are valued by farmers and consumers which hold potential for selection, improvement or mechanistic study. For each species, the germplasm, genetic and genomic resources available will then be described as potential tools to exploit this biodiversity. The review will conclude with noting current trends and gaps in the literature and make recommendations on how to better preserve and utilize diversity within these species to accelerate a New Green Revolution for subsistence farmers in Asia and Africa.
Highlights
Genetic diversity of small milletsPunjab region of India collaborated with international advisors to introduce IR8, a semi-dwarf rice modern variety
Specialty section: This article was submitted to Plant Genetics and Genomics, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science
An advantageous quality of the small millets is that they continue to be grown in remote regions of the world which has preserved their biodiversity, providing breeders with unique alleles for crop improvement
Summary
Punjab region of India collaborated with international advisors to introduce IR8, a semi-dwarf rice modern variety. In the later years of the Green Revolution, research broadened to include less common food crops and began to close the gap in yield increases due to modern varieties Administered organizations, such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), established research programs that included farmers in the dialog to strategically build a bank of genetic resources for traditionally grown species better suited to local climates and cropping systems. Though all six cereals share a similar superficial classification (small grained cereals), they differ vastly in their phylogenies and continue to be grown in some of the most remote farms on Earth— isolation has maintained a wealth of agricultural and functional diversity Their uses vary from animal fodder to human consumption, in which the small seeds can be ground into flour, cooked as porridge, or alternately fermented into enriched foods or alcoholic products.
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