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Millet

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File:Grain millet, early grain fill, Tifton, 7-3-02.jpg
Pearl millet

Millets (Template:IPAc-en)<ref name="Oxford Dictionaries">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae.

Millets are important crops in the semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa, especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger, with 97% of production in developing countries.<ref name="HCS">Template:Cite journal</ref> The crop is favoured for its productivity and short growing season under hot dry conditions.<ref name="NPR"/> The millets are sometimes understood to include the widely cultivated sorghum;<ref name=BSBI07/> apart from that, pearl millet is the most commonly cultivated of the millets.<ref name="FAO">Template:Cite book</ref> Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are other 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".<ref name="NPR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

EtymologyEdit

The word millet is derived via Old French millet, millot from Latin millium, 'millet', ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mele-, 'to crush'.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DescriptionEdit

CharacteristicsEdit

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.<ref name="Fahad Bajwa Nazir Anjum 2017">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Patan 2024">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Taxonomic historyEdit

In 1753, Carl Linnaeus described foxtail millet as Panicum italicum. In 1812, Palisot de Beauvois grouped several taxa into Setaria italica.<ref name="House 1995"/>

The genus Pennisetum was divided by Otto Stapf in 1934 into the section penicillaria, with 32 species including all the cultivated ones, and four other sections. In 1977, J. Brunken and colleagues classed the wild P. violaceum as part of the cultivated species P. glaucum (pearl millet).<ref name="House 1995">Template:Cite book</ref>

Finger millet was described as Eleusine coracana by Joseph Gaertner in 1788.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

EvolutionEdit

PhylogenyEdit

The millets are closely related to sorghum and maize within the PACMAD clade of grasses,<ref name="GWPGII">Template:Cite journal Template:Open access</ref> and more distantly to the cereals of the BOP clade such as wheat and barley.<ref name="Escobar Scornavacca Cenci Guilhaumon 2011">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Template:Clade

Within the Panicoideae, sorghum (great millet<ref name=BSBI07>Template:BSBI 2007</ref>) is in the tribe Andropogoneae, while pearl millet, proso, foxtail, fonio, little millet, sawa, Japanese barnyard millet and kodo are in the tribe Paniceae.<ref name="Soreng Peterson 2022"/><ref name="Morrone Aagesen 2012">Template:Cite journal</ref> Within the Chloridoideae, finger millet is in the tribe Cynodonteae, while teff is in the tribe Eragrostideae.<ref name="Soreng Peterson 2022">Template:Cite journal</ref>

TaxonomyEdit

The different species of millets are not all closely related. All are members of the family Poaceae (the grasses), but they belong to different tribes and subfamilies. Commonly cultivated millets are:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Eragrostideae tribe in the subfamily Chloridoideae:

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Paniceae tribe in the subfamily Panicoideae:

File:A closeup of Pearl Millet (Cumbu).JPG
Pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus)
File:A closeup of Varagu millet with husk..JPG
Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum)

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="GA-browntop">Template:Cite book</ref>

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<ref name=fao1/>

Domestication and spreadEdit

The cultivation of common millet as the earliest dry crop in East Asia has been attributed to its resistance to drought,<ref name="Lu"/> and this has been suggested to have aided its spread.<ref name="Lawler"/> Asian varieties of millet made their way from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 5000 BC.<ref name="Lawler">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Millet was growing wild in Greece as early as 3000 BC, and bulk storage containers for millet have been found from the Late Bronze Age in Macedonia and northern Greece.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Hesiod states that "the beards grow round the millet, which men sow in summer."<ref name="Hesiod2013">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Millet is listed along with wheat in the third century BC by Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

East AsiaEdit

Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were important crops beginning in the Early Neolithic of China. Some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at Cishan (north), where proso millet husk phytoliths and biomolecular components have been identified around 10,300–8,700 years ago in storage pits along with remains of pit-houses, pottery, and stone tools related to millet cultivation.<ref name="Lu">Template:Cite journal</ref> Evidence at Cishan for foxtail millet dates back to around 8,700 years ago.<ref name="Lu"/> Noodles made from these two varieties of millet were found under a 4,000-year-old earthenware bowl containing well-preserved noodles at the Lajia archaeological site in north China; this is the oldest evidence of millet noodles in China.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Palaeoethnobotanists have found evidence of the cultivation of millet in the Korean Peninsula dating to the Middle Jeulmun pottery period (around 3500–2000 BC).<ref name="Crawford 1992">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Crawford Lee 2003">Template:Cite journal</ref> Millet continued to be an important element in the intensive, multicropping agriculture of the Mumun pottery period (about 1500–300 BC) in Korea.<ref name="Crawford Lee 2003"/> Millets and their wild ancestors, such as barnyard grass and panic grass, were also cultivated in Japan during the Jōmon period sometime after 4000 BC.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Crawford 1992"/>

In the Zhengluo region of China, two millet species (foxtail millet and proso millet) were grown, enabling the people to survive the cooling of the global climate around 2200 BC.<ref name="An Kirleis Jin 2019">Template:Cite journal</ref> Chinese myths attribute the domestication of millet to Shennong, a legendary Emperor of China, and Hou Ji, whose name means Lord Millet.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Indian subcontinentEdit

Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) is believed to have been domesticated around 3000 BC in Indian subcontinent and Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) around 3700 BC, also in Indian subcontinent.<ref name="weber">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Pearl millet had arrived in the Indian subcontinent by 2000 BC to 1700 BC.<ref name="Manning Pelling Higham 2011"/> Browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa) was likely domesticated in the Deccan near the beginning of the third millennium BCE and spread throughout India though was later superseded by other millets.<ref name="GA-browntop"/> Various millets have been mentioned in some of the Yajurveda texts, identifying foxtail millet (priyaṅgu), Barnyard millet (aṇu) and black finger millet (śyāmāka), indicating that millet cultivation was happening around 1200 BC in India.<ref name="miraroy">Template:Cite journal</ref> Upon request by the Indian Government in 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations declared 2023 as International Year of Millets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cultivation of Finger millet had spread to South India by 1800 BC.<ref name="Engels Hawkes 1991"/>

AfricaEdit

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was domesticated in the Sahel region of West Africa from Pennisetum violaceum.<ref name="D'Andrea Casey 2002"/> Early archaeological evidence in Africa includes finds at Birimi in northern Ghana (1740 cal BC) and Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania (1936–1683 cal BC) and the lower Tilemsi valley in Mali (2500 to 2000 cal BC).<ref name="D'Andrea Casey 2002"/><ref name="Manning Pelling Higham 2011"/> Studies of isozymes suggest domestication took place north east of the Senegal River in the far west of the Sahel and tentatively around 6000 BC.<ref name="D'Andrea Casey 2002">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Manning Pelling Higham 2011">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Finger millet is native to the highlands of East Africa and was domesticated before the third millennium BC.<ref name="Engels Hawkes 1991">Template:Cite book</ref>

EuropeEdit

Broomcorn or proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) came to Europe from East Asia as early as the 17th century BC in Vinogradnyi Sad, Ukraine.<ref name="Kirleis 2022">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> At around 1500 BC it reached Italy and southeastern Europe; around 1400 BC it came to central Europe, and from 1200 BC, it arrived in northern Germany.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Kirleis 2022"/>

AgricultureEdit

CultivationEdit

Pearl millet is one of the two major dryland crops (alongside sorghum<ref name="Masaka 2021">Template:Cite journal</ref>) in the semiarid, impoverished, less fertile agriculture regions of Africa and southeast Asia.<ref name="Baltensperger 2002">Template:Cite book</ref> Millets are not only adapted to poor, dry infertile soils, but they are also more reliable under these conditions than most other grain crops.<ref name="Baltensperger 2002"/>

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 varieties 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 variety 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 variety has significantly enhanced yields in Mauritania and Benin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Pests and diseasesEdit

Millets are subject to damage by many insect pests, including corn borers, Stemborers, the caterpillars of numerous moths in the families Erebidae and Noctuidae, the millet midge, many species of flies in the Muscidae, Hemipteran bugs of many families including aphids, and species of thrips, beetles, and grasshoppers.<ref name="Kalaisekar 2017">Template:Cite book</ref>

Among the many diseases of millets are serious fungal infections such as anthracnose, blast, charcoal rot, downy mildew, ergot, grain mould, rust, and sheath rot. Bacterial diseases are generally less serious; they include bacterial leaf spot, leaf stripe and leaf streak. Viral diseases are again generally less serious, except for a few diseases such as maize stripe virus, maize mosaic virus, sorghum red stripe virus, and maize streak virus.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

ProductionEdit

Template:Infobox agricultural production

In 2022, global production of millet was 30.9 million tonnes. India is the top millet producer worldwide, with 11.8 million tonnes grown annually – some 38% of the world total and nearly triple its nearest rival. Eight of the remaining nine nations in the top 10 producers are in Africa, ranging from Niger (at 3.7 million tonnes) to Chad (0.7 million tonnes); the sole exception is China, number three in global production, at 2.7 million tonnes.<ref name="FAOSTAT2022"/>

  • A Woman Threshing Sorghum In Northern Ghana.png

    A woman threshing pearl millet in Northern Ghana

  • Journal of Agricultural Research (1917) (14777745304).jpg

    Proso millet with bacterial stripe disease

  • Milletoutput.png

    Production of millet (2008) showing major producing regions of the world

ResearchEdit

Research on millets is carried out by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)<ref name="icrisat-overview">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="icrisat-pearl">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="icrisat-small">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research<ref name="ICAR-main">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in Telangana, India, and by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service at Tifton, Georgia, United States.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

UsesEdit

As foodEdit

In Ukraine, millet was historically a common ingredient in the diet of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, in the form of a porridge called "kulish". This dish, primarily made with millet, served with stewed vegetables and meat, cooked in a cauldron, remains a part of modern Ukrainian cuisine.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Germany, it is eaten sweet, for example with milk and berries for breakfast.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Russia, Template:Interlanguage link also remains common and is promoted for its health benefits.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Millet porridge made with pumpkin is particularly common. In the Lipetsk Oblast ritual and daily meals from millet include {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Langx). These are millet fritters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Millet is the main ingredient in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, a Vietnamese sweet snack. It contains a layer of smashed millet and mungbean topped with sliced dried coconut meat wrapped in a crunchy rice cake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In parts of Africa millet is mixed with milk to make a drink, Brukina.<ref name="ghanaweb.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Finger millet is made into ragi rotti flatbread<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and ragi mudde dough lumps in Karnataka.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Dough lumps are eaten as fura in the Sahel region of West Africa.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Alcoholic beveragesEdit

In the Himalayas, including in Nepal, Sikkim, and Darjeeling, millet is fermented into Tongba, an alcoholic drink.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In India, alcoholic beverages including rakshi are produced from millets.<ref name="Kumar-2018">Template:Cite journal</ref>

As forageEdit

Millet is sometimes used as a forage crop, to produce animal feed. Compared to forage sorghum, animals including lambs gain weight faster on millet, and it has better hay or silage potential, although it produces less dry matter.<ref name="Collett 2004"/> Millet does not contain toxic prussic acid, sometimes found in sorghum.<ref name="Robson 2007"/> 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.<ref name="Collett 2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Robson 2007">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Lonewood Trust">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Human consumptionEdit

Per capita consumption of millets as food varies in different parts of the world, with consumption being the highest in Western Africa.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the Sahel region, millet is estimated to account for about 35 percent of total cereal food consumption in Burkina Faso, Chad and the Gambia. In Mali and Senegal, millets constitute roughly 40 percent of total cereal food consumption per capita, while in Niger and arid Namibia it is over 65 percent (see mahangu). Other countries in Africa where millets are a significant food source include Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda. Millet is also an important food item for the population living in the drier parts of many other countries, especially in eastern and central Africa, and in the northern coastal countries of western Africa. In developing countries outside Africa, millet has local significance as a food in parts of some countries, such as China, India, Burma and North Korea.<ref name=fao1/>

People affected by gluten-related disorders, such as coeliac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers,<ref name=LudvigssonLeffler2013>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=MulderWanrooij>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=VoltaCaio2015>Template:Cite journal</ref> who need a gluten-free diet, can replace gluten-containing cereals in their diets with millet.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> There remains a risk of contamination with gluten-containing cereals.<ref name="SaturniFerretti2010">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

NutritionEdit

The table shows the nutrient content of the grains of different species of millet, raw, compared to other staples.

Nutrient content of raw millets compared to other grains (per 100g)<ref name="millets-2009">Template:Cite book</ref>
Crop Protein
(g)		 Fibre
(g)		 Minerals
(g)		 Iron
(mg)		 Calcium
(mg)
Sorghum 10 4 1.6 2.6 54
Pearl millet 10.6 1.3 2.3 16.9 38
Finger millet 7.3 3.6 2.7 3.9 344
Foxtail millet 12.3 8 3.3 2.8 31
Proso millet 12.5 2.2 1.9 0.8 14
Kodo millet 8.3 9 2.6 0.5 27
Little millet 7.7 7.6 1.5 9.3 17
Barnyard millet 11.2 10.1 4.4 15.2 11
Brown top millet 11.5 12.5 4.2 0.65 0.01
Quinoa 14.1 7 * 4.6 47
Teff 13 8 0.85 7.6 180
Fonio 11 11.3 5.31 84.8 18
Rice 6.8 0.2 0.6 0.7 10
Wheat 11.8 1.2 1.5 5.3 41

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Template:Cereals Template:Agriculture country lists Template:Authority control

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