Oats (Jai)
A rapidly expanding rabi fodder-cum-grain crop across Punjab, Haryana, and UP; its beta-glucan content makes it increasingly valuable for human
Crops
Kodo millet (Kodon)
A tribal staple of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, grown on thin, degraded soils where no other grain crop can survive;
Foxtail millet (Kangni)
A short-duration, drought-tolerant crop cultivated in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu; recently gaining renewed interest as a climate-resilient superfood
Finger millet (Ragi)
The nutritional anchor of the tribal farming communities of Karnataka, Odisha, and Jharkhand; exceptionally rich in calcium and iron, increasingly
Pearl millet (Bajra)
Cultivated across 7 million hectares of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana as the primary food and fodder crop of the arid
Sorghum (Jowar)
Grown across 5 million hectares of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh as a kharif and rabi dryland cereal and high-quality
Barley (Jau)
Grown across 0.7 million hectares of Rajasthan, UP, and Bihar as a rabi cereal; valued for malt, feed, and increasingly
