Millet

Millets (

Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger), with 97% of millet production in developing countries.^[2] This crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high-temperature conditions.

The term millet is sometimes understood to comprise sorghum. The annual harvest of sorghum is twice the amount of other millets.^{[citation needed]} Of these pearl millet is the most common. Pearl millet and sorghum are important crops in India and parts of Africa.^[3] Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species.

Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years and potentially had "a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies."^[4]

Description

Generally, millets are small-grained, annual, warm-weather cereals belonging to the grass family. They are highly tolerant of drought and other extreme weather conditions and have a similar nutrient content to other major cereals.^[5]

Millet species

The different species of millets are not necessarily closely related. All are members of the family Poaceae (the grasses), but can belong to different tribes or even subfamilies.

Commonly cultivated millets are:^[6]

Eragrostideae tribe in the subfamily Chloridoideae:

• Eleusine coracana
  : Finger millet
• Eragrostis tef: Teff; often not considered to be a millet^[7]

Paniceae tribe in the subfamily Panicoideae:

• Genus Panicum:
  • Panicum miliaceum: Proso millet (common millet, broomcorn millet, hog millet, or white millet, also known as baragu in Kannada, panivaragu in Tamil)
  • Panicum sumatrense: Little millet
  • Panicum hirticaule: Sonoran millet, cultivated in the American Southwest
• Pennisetum glaucum
  : Pearl millet

• Setaria italica: Foxtail millet, Italian millet, panic^[8]
• Genus Digitaria: of minor importance as crops^[7]
  • Digitaria exilis: known as white fonio, fonio millet, and hungry rice or acha rice
  • Digitaria iburua: Black fonio
  • Digitaria compacta: Raishan, cultivated in the Khasi Hills of northeast India
  • Digitaria sanguinalis: Polish millet
• Genus Echinochloa: collectively, the members of this genus are called barnyard grasses or barnyard millets
  • Echinochloa esculenta: Japanese barnyard millet
  • Echinochloa frumentacea: Indian barnyard millet
  • Echinochloa oryzoides
  • Echinochloa stagnina: Burgu millet
  • Echinochloa crus-galli: Common barnyard grass (or cockspur grass)
• Paspalum scrobiculatum: Kodo millet

• Brachiaria deflexa: Guinea millet
• Brachiaria ramosa: Browntop millet^[9]
• Spodiopogon formosanus: Taiwan oil millet, endemic to Taiwan^[10]

Andropogoneae tribe, also in the subfamily Panicoideae:

• Sorghum bicolor: Sorghum; usually considered a separate cereal, but sometimes known as great millet
• Coix lacryma-jobi: Job's tears, also known as adlay millet^[7]

History

The various species called millet were initially domesticated in different parts of the world, most notably in East Asia, South Asia, West Africa, and East Africa. However, the domesticated varieties have often spread well beyond their initial area.^{[citation needed]}

Specialized archaeologists called

Chinese myths attribute the domestication of millet to Shennong, a legendary Emperor of China, and Hou Ji, whose name means Lord Millet.^[18]

Domestication in the Indian Subcontinent

Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) is believed to have been domesticated around 5000 BCE in Indian subcontinent and Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) around 3700 BCE, also in Indian subcontinent.

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was definitely domesticated in Africa by 3500 BCE, though 8000 BCE is thought likely.[23]^: 160 Early evidence includes finds at Birimi in West Africa with the earliest at Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania.^[23]

Pearl millet was domesticated in the Sahel region of West Africa, where its wild ancestors are found. Evidence for the cultivation of pearl millet in Mali dates back to 2500 BCE,^[24] and pearl millet is found in the Indian subcontinent by 2300 BCE.^[25]

Domestication in East Africa

Finger millet is originally native to the highlands of East Africa and was domesticated before the third millennium BCE. Its cultivation had spread to South India by 1800 BCE.^[26]

Spreading

The cultivation of common millet as the earliest dry crop in East Asia has been attributed to its resistance to drought,^[12] and this has been suggested to have aided its spread.^[27] Asian varieties of millet made their way from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 5000 BCE.^[27]

Millet was growing wild in Greece as early as 3000 BCE, and bulk storage containers for millet have been found from the

Pearl millet is one of the two major crops in the semiarid, impoverished, less fertile agriculture regions of Africa and southeast Asia.[37] Millets are not only adapted to poor, dry infertile soils, but they are also more reliable under these conditions than most other grain crops. This has, in part, made millet production popular, particularly in countries surrounding the Sahara in western Africa.^{[citation needed]}

Millets, however, do respond to high fertility and moisture. On a per-hectare basis, millet grain production can be 2 to 4 times higher with use of irrigation and soil supplements. Improved breeds of millet with enhanced disease resistance can significantly increase farm yield. There has been cooperation between poor countries to improve millet yields. For example, 'Okashana 1', a variety developed in India from a natural-growing millet variety in Burkina Faso, doubled yields. This breed was selected for trials in Zimbabwe. From there it was taken to Namibia, where it was released in 1990 and enthusiastically adopted by farmers. 'Okashana 1' became the most popular variety in Namibia, the only non-Sahelian country where pearl millet—locally known as mahangu—is the dominant food staple for consumers. 'Okashana 1' was then introduced to Chad. The breed has significantly enhanced yields in Mauritania and Benin.^[38]

Production

In 2022, global production of millet was 30.9 million

Millets are major food sources in arid and semiarid regions of the world, and feature in the traditional cuisine of many others. In western India,

Millet is also the main ingredient in a Vietnamese sweet snack called bánh đa kê. It contains a layer of smashed millet and mungbean topped with sliced dried coconut meat wrapped in a crunchy rice cake.^[41]

Per capita consumption of millets as food varies in different parts of the world, with consumption being the highest in Western Africa. In the Sahel region, millet is estimated to account for about 35 percent of total cereal food consumption in

People affected by gluten-related disorders, such as coeliac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers,^[42][43][44] who need a gluten-free diet, can replace gluten-containing cereals in their diets with millet.^[45] Nevertheless, while millet does not contain gluten, its grains and flour may be contaminated with gluten-containing cereals.^[46][47]

Grazing millet

In addition to being used for seed, millet is also used as a grazing forage crop. Instead of letting the plant reach maturity, it can be grazed by stock and is commonly used for sheep and cattle.

Millet is a C4 plant, which means that it has good water-use efficiency and utilizes high temperature and is therefore a summer crop. A C4 plant uses a different enzyme in photosynthesis from C3 plants, and this is why it improves water efficiency.

In southern Australia millet is used as a summer quality pasture, utilizing warm temperatures and summer storms. Millet is frost-sensitive and is sown after the frost period, once soil temperature has stabilised at 14 °C or higher. It is sown at a shallow depth.

Millet grows rapidly and can be grazed 5–7 weeks after sowing, when it is 20–30 cm high. The highest feed value is from the young green leaf and shoots. The plant can quickly come to head, so it must be managed accordingly because as the plant matures, the value and palatability of feed reduces.

The Japanese millets (Echinochloa esculenta) are considered the best for grazing and in particular Shirohie, a new variety of Japanese millet, is the best suited variety for grazing. This is due to a number of factors: it gives better regrowth and is later to mature compared to other Japanese millets; it is cheap – cost of seed is $2–$3 per kg, and sowing rates are around 10 tons per hectare for dryland production; it is quick to establish, can be grazed early, and is suitable for both sheep and cattle.

Compared to forage sorghum, which is grown as an alternative grazing forage, animals gain weight faster on millet, and it has better hay or silage potential, although it produces less dry matter. Lambs do better on millet compared to

The rapid growth of millet as a grazing crop allows flexibility in its use. Farmers can wait until sufficient late spring / summer moisture is present and then make use of it. It is ideally suited to irrigation where livestock finishing is required.[48]^[49][50]

Nutrition

Comparison with other major staple foods

The following table shows the nutrient content of millet compared to major staple foods in a raw form. Raw forms, however, are not edible and cannot be fully digested. These must be prepared and cooked as appropriate for human consumption. In processed and cooked form, the relative nutritional and

• Brukina – a Ghanaian name for a drink made of millet and milk
• Fura (food)
• List of ancient dishes and foods
• List of insect pests of millets

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Crawford, Gary W. (1983). Paleoethnobotany of the Kameda Peninsula. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
  ISBN 978-0-932206-95-4
  .
• Crawford, Gary W. (1992). "Prehistoric Plant Domestication in East Asia". In Cowan C.W.; Watson P.J (eds.). The Origins of Agriculture: An International Perspective. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 117–132.
  ISBN 978-0-87474-990-8
  .
• Crawford, Gary W. & Lee, Gyoung-Ah (2003). "Agricultural Origins in the Korean Peninsula". Antiquity. 77 (295): 87–95.
  S2CID 163060564
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Millet.

• "Millet" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). 1911.
• "Millets". Alternative Field Crops Manual.
• Types of Millets and Names in Different Language