Adlay is extensively cultivated in Philippine Islands, Indochina, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka, and is used as an auxiliary food crop, especially as a substitute for rice. It does not enter international trade, although it is used locally in large quantities. If perennial in the tropics, there is the good possibility that 2 MT grain and 10 MT biomass could be harvested renewably, with proper soil management. T. taiana, Uredo operta, Ustilago coicis, U. lachrymae-jobi. Leaf-gall virus and the nematode Meloidogyne incognita acrita also attack this plant.
Most losses are due to rats and parrots.
References Duke, J.A. 1978. The quest for tolerant germplasm. Duke, J.A. 1979. Ecosystematic data on economic plants. J. Crude Drug Res.