Cambridge Encyclopedia » Cambridge Encyclopedia Vol. 51

millet - Millet Varieties, Crop history, Current uses of millet, Nutrition

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A small-grained, rather inferior cereal from the tropics and warm temperate regions, grown in poor areas or as emergency crops mainly for animal feed and bird seed. It was cultivated in China from 5000 BC (the Sanskrit word for millet means ‘Chinese’), and later in India and Egypt. Common millet (Panicum miliaceum) has branching heads; foxtail or Italian millet (Setaria italica) and bulrush millet (Pennisetum glaucum) have dense heads. (Family: Gramineae.)

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