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The utility of considering the ancient history of millets
by Don Osborn 31 May '26

31 May '26

From time to time, we've shared items about the history - ancient and modern - of millets. This is to help in understand both how we got to where we are today, and what dynamics might be in play as we adapt to changes in climate and economy. I'm also working (intermittently) on a short consideration of common names for the millets that came to Europe from Asia, which is useful background to any discussion of possible new marketing names for these mllets/ In this post, however, there are two different takes on the ancient movement of millets. 1. First, we know that several of the millets - namely foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and proso or broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) from what is now China, and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and finger millet (Eleusine coracana) from the Sahel and East African highlands, respectively, plus sorghum, also from Africa - were among the earliest "globalized" crops. I've personally been fond of the image of a vast counterclockwise movement across continents. Well, I just came across a 2019 research publication that offers a more sophisticated mapping of this movement, along with those of rice, wheat, and barley. * A piece on the research article with quotes from the lead author, Prof. Xinyi Liu (Washington Univ.), and a very nice animated map of Eurasia and Africa: "Prehistoric food globalization spanned three millennia," by Gerry Everding, The Source (Washington University) February 5, 2019 https://source.washu.edu/2019/02/prehistoric-food-globalization-spanned-thr… ** The kicker from the article: "Peasant farmers began transforming diets across the OId World 7,000 years ago, study finds" ** An interesting quote from Prof. Liu: "The very fact that the ‘food globalization’ in prehistory spanned more than three thousand years indicates perhaps a major driver of the process was the perpetual needs of the poor rather than more ephemeral cultural choices of the powerful in the Neolithic and Bronze Age." * The research article itself: Xinyi Liu, Penelope J. Jones, Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute, Harriet V. Hunt, Diane L. Lister, Ting An, Natalia Przelomska, Catherine J. Kneale, Zhijun Zhao, and Martin K. Jones. 2019. "From ecological opportunism to multi-cropping: Mapping food globalisation in prehistory." Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 206, Pages 21-28, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.017 ABSTRACT: "Many of today's major food crops are distributed worldwide. While much of this ‘food globalisation’ has resulted from modern trade networks, it has its roots in prehistory. In this paper, we examine cereal crops that moved long distances across the Old World between 5000 and 1500 BC. Drawing together recent archaeological evidence, we are now able to construct a new chronology and biogeography of prehistoric food globalisation. Here we rationalize the evidence for this process within three successive episodes: pre-5000 BC, between 5000 and 2500 BC, and between 2500 and 1500 BC. Each episode can be characterized by distinct biogeographical patterns, social drivers of the crop movements, and ecological constraints upon the crop plants. By 1500 BC, this process of food globalisation had brought together previously isolated agricultural systems, to constitute a new kind of agriculture in which the bringing together of local and exotic crops enables a new form of intensification." 2. Second, is a piece found by Gary Wietgrefe that focuses on how changing soil temperatures in East Asia during ancient times constrained and shifted areas suitable for millet cropping. (Although this is important research, I found it surprising that no mention was made of the species in question - either or both foxtail millet and proso millet; or if such precision was not possible, that might be so stated). * An oveview article: "Ancient soil temperatures may have steered millet farming across Neolithic East Asia," by Zhang Nannan (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Phys.org, 7 May 2026 https://phys.org/news/2026-05-ancient-soil-temperatures-millet-farming.html * The research article itself: Y. Lu, J. Ruan, R. Liu, J.D. Guedes, J. Wang, Y. Li, X. Wang, Y. Xu, L. Tan, J. Shang, S. Kang, & G. Dong. 2026. "Soil temperature fluctuations modulated millet agriculture evolution in Neolithic East Asia," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A.) 123 (20) e2529151123, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2529151123 "Significance: Agriculture was the critical intermediary through which climate change influenced the trajectory of ancient civilizations, yet the mechanisms linking environmental shifts and early farming practices remain poorly delineated. In Neolithic East Asia, the spatiotemporal development of millet agriculture does not align with patterns of precipitation and air temperature alone. Here, we reconstruct Holocene growing-season soil temperature from biomarker proxies and indicate that mid-Holocene soil cooling likely compressed thermally suitable zones for millet cultivation, contributing to a southward displacement of farming and delaying large-scale agricultural expansion until subsequent warming. These results highlight the importance of growing-season soil temperature as a key climatic constraint operating alongside social and technological factors in shaping the trajectories of early millet agriculture." Full viewing of both research articles is paywalled, unless you have access via an institution. Nevertheless, it is worth the time to look at what is freely accessible, as linked above. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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JKM on "Millets make sense as water becomes scarce"
by Don Osborn 09 May '26

09 May '26

NAMA co-founder Joni Kindwall-Moore has a guest column in the Capital Press (Salem, OR) on the potential role of millets in our food system in the wake of drier and hotter conditions: "Millets make sense as water becomes scarce," 5 May 2026 https://capitalpress.com/2026/05/05/millets-make-sense-as-water-become-scar… Joni notes that while the agronomic case (or cases, really) for millets are well known, the systems for processing and marketing grain millets, as well as current consumer demand, are still limited. Based on her experience, she further outlines some steps that can be taken to address these gaps. Thank you, Joni, for this call to action! Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Press release: "Not Enough Fertilizer this Year? Consider Millets"
by Don Osborn 05 May '26

05 May '26

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 4, 2026 *North American Millets Alliance* *Not Enough Fertilizer this Year? Consider Millets* If fertilizer is scarce or unavailable for corn, what are planting options? Have you considered any of the millets? Replacing corn with soybeans is the most logical choice, but buildup of cyst nematodes prohibits replanting soybeans on last year’s soybean ground. Land prices and cropland rent are too high to leave ground idle. Just as costly is fallow syndrome if the ground is kept bare. Cover crops are a better option than black fallow. It may be best to plant a species of millet for grain or forage. Millets need fertilizer like any other crop. However, they are excellent nutrient scavengers, so application rates are only a fraction of that needed for corn. A general recommendation is that fifty pounds of nitrogen is removed per ton of forage. * *Pearl millet*, a tall, high-protein leafy grass, can break the nematode cycle. Economically planted at two to ten pound per acre in rows or drilled in narrow rows, pearl millet can be cut multiple times for forage, grazed through first frost without fears of prussic acid, or could be left as a cover crop over the winter. Corn Belt farmers should consider *Japanese millet* or *Chiwapa millet*, a variety of the closely related billion-dollar grass, for grain or forage. Chiwapa can take wet ground better than Japanese, although both are better in this regard than most other millets. Unlike pearl millet, which regrows after cutting, Japanese and Chiwapa should only be cut once. These crops could be harvested as a food grain, but finding processors may be a challenge, and the potential specialty market for the grains (typically under the name, barnyard millet) is limited. *Teff* is an extremely small-seeded millet that can be harvested for grain, or used as an excellent, leafy forage crop. The U.S. market for teff as a food grain is increasing, but buyers are limited – much of teff grain production is grown under contract. At over a million seeds per pound, if harvesting teff for grain, best have holes plugged on your grain truck. Don’t want a four-to-five-foot forage crop like pearl millet? The shorter *brown top millet* and *foxtail millet* are excellent for wildlife, as cover crops, and make nutritious forage. Grains from either of these millets can be used as a food grain or potentially exported, but commercial-scale U.S. food processing is not available. The best grain millet currently in North America, and the poorest forage millet, is *proso millet*. About a half-million acres of proso grain are harvested every year in the U.S. Food uses for proso grain in the U.S. and Canada, as well as exports, continue to expand, although most proso is currently used as wild bird food. Proso has a slightly higher feed value than corn in poultry rations, and it can be ground for cattle and hog feeds. All millets can be used to produce ethanol, but proso is comparable to corn. Fertilizer recommendations for proso grain are based on University of Nebraska soil test zero-to-eight-inch depth for all nutrients except nitrogen where a subsoil sample from 30 to 36 inches is recommended. *Fertilizer Recommendation for Proso Millet Grain*** [ FOR TABLE - SEE ATTACHED FULL PRESS RELEASE ] *Soil Fertility Management for Forage Crops: Maintenance, Nitrogen Management for Grasses, Penn State Extension, August 19, 2025. **Fertilizing Proso Millet (NebGuide G1945), University of Nebraska, May 2009.

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Quiz: Identifying millets in an image
by Don Osborn 05 May '26

05 May '26

Attached is an image with details from a photo of three different packages of millets. Can you identify the millets in the left, center, and right of the image? Hint #1: There are only two species of millet involved. Hint #2: One of those species is present in two distinct varieties. (You are not asked to make that distinction.) I'll follow with another hint later, and then share the original photo and details. Motive for this: I'd like to get some unbiased takes on their identity. TIA, Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Re: Quiz: Identifying millets in an image
by Don Osborn 05 May '26

05 May '26

Thank you again, Gary. You are correct that the vertical black characters on the packages identify the millets. (By the way, the English-language ingredient in all three is identical: "Processed millet.") For information here is what it says on all three packages: Left: 东北大黃米 (dōngběi dà huáng mǐ) = Northeast (China) "da huang mi" Center: 山西糯小米 (Shānxī nuò xiǎomǐ) = Shanxi waxy "xiaomi" Right: 山西小米 (Shānxī xiǎomǐ) = Shanxi "xiaomi" By the labels, yes, the right two should be the varieties of the same millet, even as the left two appear similar. * Da huang mi (big yellow "hulled grain") is proso, per my sources. * Xiaomi (small "hulled grain") is foxtail millet, again per my sources. However "xiaomi" seems to be also used more generically, perhaps as an influence from English "millet." (Caveat: My Chinese language knowledge is very limited.) * Shanxi is a province in northern China * Nuò, as is apparent, is the word for waxy / sticky / glutinous * Mǐ usually means (hulled) rice, but also has a wider meaning that I interpret as staple grain (again, without claiming any depth in the language) With this, I'll shift to replying to Dipak's response. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Sun, May 3, 2026 at 10:23 PM <gww374(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks for details and more clues by including the Chinese writing of what > I assume identifies the type of millet. Since the symbols are the same > except the center has more one extra character, I now guess the center and > right are the same type millet just different varieties. > > The germ appears darker than proso that we eat, so I don’t think either is > proso…..Gary > > Sent from my iPhone > > On May 3, 2026, at 9:04 AM, Don Osborn <don(a)milletsalliance.org> wrote: > > > Thanks, Gary, for your reply. I realize that I should have put something > in this image to give the scale. The image is not that close up. Also, > these are of millets packaged in the US under a Chinese label. > > I apologize fot the third one being a bit out of focus. I took several > images of three packages in a store on an iPhone camera (they're tolerant > of me taking pictures of items), and had to work with the angle to avoid > casting a shadow from the overhead lights, and minimize the reflection off > the wrinkles in the cellophane packaging. A consequence is that the third > package (with the smaller grains) was on the edge of focus - and I didn't > realize it at the time. > > Attached is the full photo, at 33% since the original is 6 mb (a bit large > to dump in folks' inboxes). I can send the original offlist to you or > anyone who might want to examine more closely. Btw, the previous composite > image was made with sections from the 100% original. > > DO, EL, MI, US > NAMA > > > On Sat, May 2, 2026 at 5:21 PM Gary Wietgrefe <gww374(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Good quiz. I only have been eating proso and the germ is lighter color >> and hulled seed more round and whitish yellow. No samples are pearl or >> finger. My guess is that the left and center are two varieties of foxtail >> and the right (blurry sample) is smaller seed and likely little millet. >> Thanks for the opportunity....Gary Wietgrefe >> >> On Sat, May 2, 2026 at 12:17 PM Don Osborn via Collab < >> collab(a)lists.millets2023.space> wrote: >> >>> Attached is an image with details from a photo of three different >>> packages >>> of millets. Can you identify the millets in the left, center, and right >>> of >>> the image? >>> >>> Hint #1: There are only two species of millet involved. >>> >>> Hint #2: One of those species is present in two distinct varieties. (You >>> are not asked to make that distinction.) >>> >>> I'll follow with another hint later, and then share the original photo >>> and >>> details. >>> >>> Motive for this: I'd like to get some unbiased takes on their identity. >>> >>> TIA, >>> >>> Don Osborn, PhD >>> (East Lansing, MI, US) >>> North American Millets Alliance >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Collab mailing list -- collab(a)lists.millets2023.space >>> To unsubscribe send an email to collab-leave(a)lists.millets2023.space >>> >> >> >> -- >> Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe, >> https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/ >> Enjoy Wietgrefe's (pronounced "wit' grif") dozen books, patents, and >> international research on millets, agronomy, cultural changes, travel >> adventure, poetry, and history. >> > <3ChineseMillets-33pc.png> > <3ChineseMillets-33pc.png> > >

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Fwd: Chiwapa Millet
by Don Osborn 27 Apr '26

27 Apr '26

Forwarding this item by our NAMA colleague and agronomist, Gary Wietgrefe. One quick note - this millet is also known as Indian barnyard millet. Together with Japanese, or Japanese barnyard, millet and their respective precursor wild relatives (that I understand are sometimes also cultivated), this “barnyard” group is a complex and closely related set of species. DO, EL, MI, US NAMA ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gary Wietgrefe <gww374(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 4:25 PM Subject: Chiwapa Millet To: Don Osborn <don(a)milletsalliance.org>, Joni Kindwall-Moore < info(a)milletsalliance.org> For agronomic purposes, I did a bit of searching for millets best for wet soils. I have not worked with Chiwapa millet but it is *Echinochloa frumentacea *(better known as billion dollar grass). I have no experience with it. Apparently, it is a long season (120 day) millet used across the South in wet ground to attract gamebirds--primarily ducks. It appears Chiwapa millet (*Echinochloa frumentacea*) does better (standability and sustainability) in wet and saturated soils than Japanese millet (*Echinochloa esculenta*). *Seed is available* across the South. So if some culinary users want to try it, they should order seed before it is treated for planting. Likely, it would need to be conditioned, probably removing the seed coat, before turning it into flour. Here are a few links including suppliers and research: *Chiwapa*: http://www.chiwapa.com/aac_planting.php *Handcock Seed*: https://hancockseed.com/products/chiwapa-millet-seed?_pos=1&_psq=chiwapa&_s… *Specialty Seed*: https://specialtyseed.com/about-chiwapa-millet/ *Research*: *No-Till Farmer*: ttps:// www.no-tillfarmer.com/ext/resources/files/2021/NRCS%20Trials/flpmcsr13551.p… *USDA-NRCS*: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/gapmcsr13555.pdf We should probably use Chiwapa millet as a reference name for *Echinochloa frumentacea* and keep it separate from Japanese millet *Echinochloa esculenta*. In India Chiwapa millet is apparently called Indian Barnyard millet or Sama Rice, but I don't think we should use either of those names in North America. On our farm (northcentral South Dakota) we used foxtail millets because our wheat, oats and barley fields were planted in April and many sloughs would not dry out until June. When they did, a thin crust would form and the bare-ground sloughs which allowed us to run a tractor and grain drill across and shallow (<1 in.) plant foxtail millet in sloughs mostly an acre or less. Our intent was only to harvest forage-not seed. In the fall (September) we would cut it for hay. However, I would only recommend foxtail in Michigan for forage on dry soils only when saturated soils dry out and likely would not flood again. Followup flooding will kill the foxtail millet. Saturated or flooded soils may be best to plant Chiwapa millet for forage and wildlife.....Gary Wietgrefe -- Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe, https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/ Enjoy Wietgrefe's (pronounced "wit' grif") dozen books, patents, and international research on millets, agronomy, cultural changes, travel adventure, poetry, and history.

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Millets vs. the water crisis. NAMA Millets Webinar, 14 Apr. 2026
by Don Osborn 17 Apr '26

17 Apr '26

Long-term aquifer depletion, lower than normal snowpack levels, and effects of high temperatures raise concerns about water availability for cereal crops in the Plains and other drier parts of North America. What role can millets play in assuring sustainable food production and farm survival in 2026 and beyond? What are some of the issues that stand in the way of more planting of these resilient small grains? Or of developing consumer demand for them? These are some of the questions discussed by NAMA board members Gary Wietgrefe, Joni Kindwall-Moore, and Don Osborn in this latest of the NAMA Millets Webinars (14 Apr. 2026). Also considered was the potential for millets in other regions of the continent - millets are diverse crops with various potential in diverse agro-climatic zones. https://youtu.be/seuxQbVsc68 Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Pinterest boards on millets & products made with them
by Don Osborn 12 Apr '26

12 Apr '26

About a decade ago, I started "parking" some photos of packaged millets products on a personal Pinterest site, beginning with a board titled "Millets, Plural." I organized it in a way that illustrated the multiple different grains that we referred to with the name "millet.Later, I added other related boards, while intermittently adding more "pins" to each. Since I haven't mentioned this effort in a while, it seemed like a good moment to bring it back to your attention. The relevant boards and sections are listed below. (This is not to promote Pinterest, but the sections seem to display better if one is subscribed, which is free.) Millets, Plural https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-plural/ * Pearl millet / Bajri * Foxtail millet / Xiaomi * Proso millet / Proso * Finger millet / Ragi * Kodo millet * Barnyard millet [both species] * Little millet * Browntop millet * Millets, side-by-side * Millets, combined in products * Uncertain * "Millet," singular, in lists of grains Fonio & teff: Africa's tiniest millets https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/fonio-teff-africas-tiniest-millets/ * Fonio / Acha ["acha" is a term is commonly used in eastern West Africa] * Fonio brewing & beers * Teff * Teff hay & pellets Andropogon millets: Sorghum, adlay & TOM https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/andropogon-millets-sorghum-adlay-tom/ * Sorghum * Sorghum syrup * Adlay / Job's tears * Taiwan oil millet [TOM] Millets in charts & diagrams https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-in-charts-diagrams/ * Characteristics * Food processing * Taxonomies * Taxonomies with "pseudo-millets" * The "millets triangle" Any observations, suggestions, or questions are welcome. In a tangentially related item, we are considering developing a guide or meta-guide to images for educational and journalistic purposes - we are still seeing photos of one kind of millet in articles about one or more other types, which only confuses people more. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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More on proso millet in late Bronze Age Europe
by Don Osborn 09 Apr '26

09 Apr '26

Here's yet another research item mentioning proso or broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in the Bronze Age. First, an article about the research article: "Rare Remains Provide Insights Into Bronze Age Burials, Diet, and Society," by R.J. Mackenzie, Discover, Mar 5, 2026 https://www.discovermagazine.com/rare-remains-provide-insights-into-bronze-… Through analysis of "ancient DNA molecules, strontium and oxygen isotopes, and information from buried skeletons" from 36 late Bronze Age burial sites in central Germany, the research shed light on ancient dietary patterns. Among those, people began eating broomcorn millet - "a recent arrival from China" - in response to economic or environmental change. This research was in a different area of central Europe than that reported in an article I posted about in January./1 (The photo accompanying the article looks like sorghum and not proso/broomcorn millet.) The research article & its abstract Orfanou, E., Ghalichi, A., Rohrlach, A.B. et al. "Reconstruction of the lifeways of Central European Late Bronze Age communities using ancient DNA, isotope and osteoarchaeological analyses." Nature Communications 17, 1992 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69895-y /2 Abstract (NB- while this abstract does not mention any millet, the article has numerous references to "millet," contextualized by specification that this is "broomcorn millet" [aka proso]): "The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–800 BCE) of Central Europe is often characterised as a period of increasing mobility, socioeconomic transformation, environmental fluctuations, and expanding cultural networks. However, reconstructing the demographic aspects of these changes has been hindered by cremation being the dominant mortuary practice, limiting biomolecular approaches. Here, we integrate ancient DNA, oxygen and strontium isotope analyses, and osteoarchaeology to examine rare inhumation burials from Kuckenburg and Esperstedt in Central Germany (n = 36) and compare them to contemporaneous inhumations from the neighbouring regions of South Germany, Bohemia (Czechia) and Southwest/Central Poland (n = 33). Genome-wide data show genetic continuity with preceding Early Bronze Age populations, alongside gradual increases in Early European Farmer-related ancestry, albeit with regionally different timing and extent, reflecting a nuanced pattern of mobility and admixture. Oxygen and strontium isotope data from Central Germany indicate that most individuals match the local isotope signal, including those who were cremated or had a different diet, and with only a few isotopic outliers, suggesting that mobility was present but not extensive. Overall, our findings suggest that the diverse inhumation practices at Kuckenburg and Esperstedt were culturally motivated, reflecting local traditions and ongoing regional interconnectedness rather than the influx of new genetic groups or non-local individuals." Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. "Proso millet improved life in late Bronze Age Europe" (31 Jan 2026) https://lists.millets2023.space/archives/list/collab@lists.millets2023.spac… 2. The complete list of authors: Eleftheria Orfanou, Ayshin Ghalichi, Adam B. Rohrlach, Enrico Paust, Aida Andrades Valtueña, Michal Ernée, Mirosław Furmanek, Agata Hałuszko, Taylor Hermes, Marie Himmel, Jana Ilgner, Johannes Krause, Mario Küßner, Thiseas Christos Lamnidis, Mary Lucas, Drahomíra Adámková Malyková, Harald Meller, Gunnar U. Neumann, Luka Papac, Sandra Penske, Maike Salinger, Sarah A. Schrader, Torsten Schunke, Lena Semerau, Lubor Smejtek, Luca Traverso, Barbara Zach, Robert Spengler, Philipp W. Stockhammer, Joachim Wahl, Christophe Snoeck, Peter Ettel, Florian N. Schneider, Patrick Roberts & Wolfgang Haak

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AI for identifying & distinguishing among millets (2 articles)
by Don Osborn 05 Apr '26

05 Apr '26

While I like to think that I've gotten pretty good at distinguishing among certain millets (and similar sized seeds), there are cases where I'm not so sure or have to look very closely. Sometimes this is at home, where I once almost mistook a jar of little millet for one of amaranth. From a distance, proso and foxtail millets are fairly obvious, but a jar with couscous (not even grain, of course) actually resembles the latter - until you get close. I've recently been experimenting with barnyard millet (likely Indian barnyard, imported from India) and browntop millet side-by-side in jars, they look quite similar. I'll return to this particular comparison another time, but the point is that reliably identifying small millets - out of the hull as I have them, or even in the hulls, can be a challenge even on an individual level. How much more complicated might this be if one had volumes of different millets in a storage or processing facility where they have to be maintained separately So it is of interest to note two recent articles discussing techniques for using AI / deep learning to automatically identify millet grains as well as plants: ----- Ravichandran, M., K. Jagan Mohan, and S. Sivasankaran, "A Comprehensive Review on Various Deep Learning Techniques for Identification and Classification of Millets," Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Secure Data Analytics (ICAISDA 2025), Atlantis Press, 2026. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_38 Abstract "Millets, including pearl, finger, foxtail, proso, kodo, and little millet, are small-grained cereals known for their climate resilience. These crops require enhanced digital tools for species and cultivar recognition, disease detection, and origin and quality assessment. ML techniques based on neural networks, such as CNNs or combined models, have helped in millet classification from diverse data sources, including leaf and seed images, hyperspectral scans, and field-level imagery. This review elaborates on findings made between 2020 and 2025 while contrasting model families, datasets, and reported metrics across the modalities, pointing out key challenges such as diversity in datasets, environmental variability, explainability, and edge deployment." ------ Baisakh, B., P.K. Sethy, R. Gupta, et al, "A hybrid machine vision and handcrafted features fusion based approach for fine-grained millet classification," Scientific Repports 16, 2578 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-32311-4 Abstract: "Millets are increasingly recognized as climate-resilient, nutrient-rich grains essential for food and nutritional security. However, the limited availability of annotated datasets and the visual similarities among millet varieties such as Barnyard Millet, Little Millet, and Proso Millet pose significant challenges in their accurate identification and classification. To address these issues, this study proposes two novel hybrid frameworks that leverage both handcrafted and deep learning paradigms. A key component shared by both frameworks is the incorporation of a custom-designed handcrafted feature extraction process. The first framework introduces a Stacked Ensemble Machine Learning approach, that integrates handcrafted techniques and machine learning classifiers as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers using a multinomial logistic regression meta-learner. The second framework adopts a bidirectional deep learning architecture; wherein handcrafted feature vectors are fused with the pretrained VGG19 model to achieve effective classification of different millet varieties. The stacked ensemble hybrid model achieved the 97% classification accuracy where as the second model achieved the highest accuracy of 96.7%, an F1-score of 0.967, and a ROC-AUC of 0.995, while maintaining excellent tradeoff between training and inference times." Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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