Foxtail millet, Setaria italica, is an annual grass of the family Poaceae grown for human food, the second most widely planted millet species overall and the most grown millet species in Asia, also known as dwarf setaria, Italian millet or German millet, with the synonym Panicum italicum. The oldest evidence of its cultivation comes from along the ancient course of the Yellow River at Cishan in China, carbon dated to around 8,000 years before the present, with the Cishan culture identified as domesticating it around 6500 to 5500 BC. Its early maturity and water efficiency have made it an important crop in arid and semiarid regions of Asia.
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