Minor millets are the major food sources in arid and semiarid regions of South Asia and Africa, accounting for less than one percent of the total food grains produced in the world. Even though they have high versatility for cultivation in diverse agro-climatic regions, so far they received less attention than rice and wheat, in reference to research review of crop improvement and cultivation practices.They include Finger millet (Eleusine coracana),Foxtail or Italian millet (Setaria italica), Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), Common or Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) and Barnyard or Sawa millet (Echinochloa utilis).

Significant contributors to why 1 billion humans are chronically malnourished in developing nations are declining soil fertility and increasing fertilizer costs: these result in low crop yields as well as reduced access to minerals essential for children and pregnant women. Human malnutrition is particularly prevalent in Africa and South Asia. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is an under-studied cereal crop that was domesticated in Ethiopia and today is eaten by poor peoples in East Africa and South Asia. For plant biologists, finger millet should be of significant scientific interest because it can grow in marginal soils yet produce highly nutritious grain.

Here, an attempt is made to review the available literature of minor millets with emphasis on finger millet with reference to South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, in one document.This review study available  on the present cultivation status  of finger millet in a single window pertaining to South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, would provide all the sectors, such as academicians, transfer of technology specialists, non-government organizations(NGO’s) as well policy leaders, what strategies could be attempted, adopted and implemented to improve these crops ensuring  the global food security, as well as the economic condition of resource poor farmers  in a  climate change context.