The large-scale shift toward high-yielding wheat and rice varieties that accompanied India's Green Revolution era effectively marginalised millet crops, both in terms of farmland allocation and their role in everyday food consumption. The present research analysed long-term trends and variability in the area under cultivation, aggregate output and per-hectare yield of four commercially and nutritionally important millets, such as bajra, jowar, ragi and small millets, across India. Annual data covering seven decades (1950–51 to 2021–22) were retrieved from established government statistical repositories. Three quantitative tools were utilised: the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to capture directional trends, the coefficient of variation (CV) to quantify dispersion and the Cuddy-Della Valle instability index (CDVI) to measure detrended variability. Area under cultivation contracted significantly for every crop studied, with CAGR values spanning -0.62 % to -3.64 %. Among the four crops, bajra alone achieved a statistically significant rise in total production (CAGR: +1.67 %, p < 0.001). Yield per hectare, by contrast, improved notably for all four crops, posting CAGR values between 0.79 % and 2.13 %. Stability assessment, adjusted for long-term trends, confirmed low levels of instability (CDVI < 15) across the area and the production and productivity dimensions for every crop examined. The main objective for this study is to understand and analyse the growth and instability in certain aspects, such as area, production, productivity of bajra, jowar, ragi and small millets.
