Which type of millets originated in Africa?
Five distinct regions across Africa served as birthplaces for various crops. These crops spread far and wide, not just within the continent but also reaching southern Africa by the year 1000 AD (Mitchell, 2002; Boivin et al., 2013). Even more remarkably, they arrived in the Indian subcontinent as early as 2000 BC (Fuller, 2003; Fuller & Boivin, 2009). The major focus is on four key crops: pearl millet, sorghum, finger millet, and cowpea. Pearl millet originated in the West African Sahel, with evidence suggesting its domestication around 2500-2000 BC in northeast Mali (Kahlheber & Neumann, 2007; Manning et al., 2011). Sorghum likely originated in the northeastern Sudanese savannas before 2000 BC (Stemler et al., 1975; Beldados & Costantini, 2011; Fuller, 2014). The origins of finger millet are less clear, but it was likely first cultivated somewhere between the Ethiopian highlands and the Great Lakes region of eastern Africa.