Cereal

Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible seeds (actually a fruit called a grain). Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities worldwide than any other type of crop and provide more calories to the human race. In some developing nations, cereal grains constitute practically the entire diet of common folk. In developed nations, cereal consumption is more moderate but still substantial. The word cereal has its origin in the goddess of grain, Ceres. Staple food grains are often called corn.

Table of contents

1 Cereal crops 1.1 True cereals 1.2 Pseudocereals 2 Cultivation 3 Food value

Cereal crops

True cereals

The cereal crops are (in approximate order of greatest annual production):

• wheat, the primary cereal of temperate regions
• rice, the primary cereal of tropical regions
• maize, a staple food of peoples in North America, South America, and Africa and of livestock worldwide
• the millets, a group of similar but distinct cereals that form an important staple food in Asia and Africa.
• sorghum, important staple food in Asia and Africa and popular worldwide for livestock
• rye and triticale, important in cold climates
• oats, formerly the staple food of Scotland and popular worldwide for livestock
• barley, grown for malting and livestock on land too poor for wheat
• teff, popular in Ethiopia but scarcely known elsewhere
• wild rice, grown in small amounts in the USA
• spelt, a close relative of wheat