Foxtail millet: Nutritional importance and cultivation aspects

Abstract

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica) also known as Italian millet, German millet, Chinese millet or Hungarian millet, is one of the oldest cultivated millets in the world. It is cultivated in about 23 countries of Asia, Africa and America. It is a self-pollinating, short-duration, drought tolerant and C4 cereal crop good as food for human consumption, feed for poultry and cage birds, and fodder for cattle; mainly cultivated in poor or marginal soils. It plays an important role in the world agriculture providing food to millions of people dependent on poor or marginal soils in southern Europe and in temperate, subtropical and tropical Asia.