Millet: modern trends and production prospects

Climate change towards global warming is directing modern agricultural activities towards the selection of drought-resistant crops that would solve the food problem.One of these crops is millet -a leading cereal crop valued for its high nutritional qualities and export volumes, making our country one of the top exporters.Millet is widely used to meet food needs, in the confectionery industry, and for medicinal purposes.It plays an important role in feed and agrotechnical significance.The largest millet cultivation areas are concentrated in Africa and Asia -62.7% and 35.2% of the total global area allocated to this crop.In Ukraine, there has been a significant reduction in millet cultivation areas, but our country's share in the total cultivation areas of this crop in Europe is quite significant -16.4-30.1%.World millet production is characterized by fairly high stability without sharp fluctuations over the years -27.672-32.803 million tons from 2000 to 2022.The largest millet producers in the world are India, China, and Nigeria.Combined, these three countries harvested 126.039 million tons during the period 2015-2022, accounting for 53% of global production.In Ukraine, the highest millet production volumes were recorded in 2000 -426.1 thousand tons, after which there was a significant reduction with minimal values in 2017-2018 -80.5-84.4thousand tons.Despite this, Ukraine is among the largest millet producers in Europe.The trend in the pre-war years shows that about a third of the total millet production in Europe was concentrated in Ukraine.The average millet yield in our country, starting from 2019, exceeds the yield levels obtained in various regions of the world, including average global indicators.A comparative analysis with leading production countries confirms that millet yield in Ukraine is significantly higher than in India and Nigeria but significantly lower than in China.Therefore, the relevance of improving millet cultivation technology in Ukraine becomes increasingly evident, and its resolution will increase yield levels, improve product quality, reduce production costs, and strengthen Ukraine's position in the international agricultural market.