Pearl millet is the fifth most important cereal crop, and the most important millet, accounting for more than 55% of global millet production. It is grown in over 40 countries, predominantly in Africa and Asia, as a staple food grain and source of feed, fodder, fuel and construction material in the hottest, driest, semi-arid and arid regions where rainfed agriculture is practiced. The crop is most important to national food security in Namibia and Niger; the major producing countries are Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and India. Pearl millet is also grown in Oceania and the Americas, predominantly as a forage and/or mulch component of minimum tillage-based cropping systems.

Photo: ICRISAT