Leveraging millets for developing climate resilient agriculture

Abstract

C₄ grasses dominate natural and agricultural settings, and the widespread success of wild grasses is mostly attributable to their resilience to environmental extremes. Much of this natural stress tolerance has been lost in major cereals as a byproduct of domestication and intensive selection. Millets are an exception, and they were domesticated in semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where selection favored tolerance and stability over yield. Here, we review the evolutionary and domestication histories of millets and the traits that enable their stress tolerance, broad adaptability, and superior nutritional qualities compared to other cereals. We discuss genome editing and advanced breeding approaches that can be used to develop nutritious, climate resilient cereals of the future. Finally, we propose that millets can play a central role in the global food system to combat food insecurity, with researchers and germplasm from the Global South at the center of these efforts.