Field management practices to produce nutritional and healthier main crops

Abstract

For thousands of years, cereal grains have been a primary source for the nutrition of the human population and during the period after major crops’ domestication, agriculture radically transformed human societies worldwide. The most important cereal species in agriculture are maize, rice, wheat, triticale, rye, barley, oats, sorghum, and millets, with a total yield of more than 2750 million tonnes (FAOSTAT, 2021). For the majority of the population, cereal crops remain the major source of calories. In developing countries, cereals provide about 60% of the calories, while in the poorest countries cereal parts in daily calories uptake reach more than 80% (Awika, 2011). On the other hand, in the developed world, approximately 30% of the calories come directly from cereals. Moreover, cereals are essential for animal feed in about 36% of world consumption and industrial.