Pearl millet

Pearl Millet

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Pearl millet

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is the most widely grown type of millet

Millet

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal Crop or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a scientific classification group, but rather a functional or agronomic one....
. Grown in Africa

Africa

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
n subcontinent since prehistoric times, it is generally accepted that pearl millet originated in Africa and was subsequently introduced into India. The earliest archaeological records in India date to 2000 BC, so domestication

Domestication

Domestication or taming refers to the process whereby a population of living things becomes accustomed to a controlled environment by other plants or animals through a process of Selective breeding....
in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
must have taken place earlier. Its origin has been traced to tropical Africa.

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Common names for pearl millet

In Africa: mahangu, sanio, gero, babala, nyoloti, dukkin, souna, petit mil, mexoeira (Mozambique), mashela (Tigrinya)
In India: Sajje (Kannada); Kambu-Tamil; bajra, Bajri ????? (Marathi), sajje-Hindi & North Indian Languages; sajjalu (Telugu)
In Australia: bulrush millet
In Brazil: milheto
In the USA: cattail millet
In Europe: candle millet, dark millet

Uses

In its traditional growing areas in India and many African countries, pearl millet is consumed. The grain is consumed in the form of leavened or unleavened breads, porridge

Porridge

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats or another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is eaten in a flat bowl or a dish....
s, boiled or steamed foods, and (alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl Functional group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group....
ic) beverages. In the Sahel

Sahel

Couscous

Couscous or kuskus as it is known in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt is a Berber people dish consisting of spherical granules made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour....
. The stalks are a valued building material, fuel and livestock

Livestock

Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
feed.

In non-traditional growing areas in the USA, Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, and Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, pearl millet is grown as a cover crop

Cover crop

Broadly defined, a cover crop is any Annual plant, Biennial plant, or perennial plant grown as a monoculture or polyculture , to improve any number of conditions associated with sustainable agriculture....
, or for forage

Fodder

In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs....
or grain. Different varieties are grown for forage or grain.

Pearl millet is becoming essential to soybean

Soybean

The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia. The plant is classed as an oilseed rather than a Pulse . It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years as a food and a component of drugs....
production in the Cerrado

Cerrado

The cerrado is a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil. The cerrado is characterised by an enormous range of plant and animal biodiversity....
region in Brazil, where it is used to conserve soil quality, and to suppress nematodes and weeds. Although originally used as a cover crop, area under cultivation is increasing rapidly and pearl millet is being grown for its quality grain and forage. In Canada, pearl millet cover or rotations are valuable to reduce soil-borne nematodes in potato cropping systems.

In the USA, this temporary summer annual grazing or hay crop is high in protein, is highly digestible, and is free of prussic acid. It is commonly used for feeding dairy and beef cattle

Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, horses, goats, and other livestock.

Much of the grain is currently used to feed birds, particularly poultry and gamebirds for recreational hunting, such as bobwhite quail

Bobwhite Quail

The Northern Bobwhite, Virginia Quail or Bobwhite Quail is a ground-dwelling bird native to North America and northern Central America and the Caribbean....
, turkey, pheasant, and dove. It is showing considerable value in poultry and egg production. When used to feed layer hens, the eggs have a higher concentration of the healthier omega-3 fatty acids. The grain is also used to feed livestock such as cattle

Cattle

PIGS

PIGS is a four letter acronym that can stand for:* PIGS : Phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class S, a human gene.* PIGS : Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, an informal grouping of sluggish economies....
, and is used in some specialty dog food products.

Because of its high protein content and rapid fermentation rate, the grain is showing promise as an economical feedstock for ethanol

Ethanol

Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatility , flammable, colorless liquid....
production. It is fully compatible in facilities that ferment corn or sorghum.

Pearl millet products are sold in ethnic food markets in the USA, particularly in those catering to immigrants from Africa or the Indian sub-continent where pearl millet is a familiar and traditional food. Use of this gluten-free grain in specialty food markets in the USA has been limited. Confusion over labelling in the market with other types of "millet" currently limits the development of novel food products from pearl millet.

Qualities

Pearl millet grain is comparatively high in protein and has a good amino acid balance. It is high in lysine and methionine + cystine levels. It contains twice as much methionine than sorghum, an important trait for organic poultry production. The grain is also comparatively high in fat, and linolenic acid comprises 4% of the total fatty acids.

Even when grown in highly stressed conditions, the grain is essentially free of aflatoxins and fumonisins

Fumonisins

A fumonisin is a mycotoxin derived from Fusarium.More specifically, it can refer to:* Fumonisin B1* Fumonisin B2References...
. These carcinogenic mycotoxins are a significant problem on maize when it is grown in regions where it is not well-adapted. Government policies that encourage maize production in regions where pearl millet is a traditional food may have long-term health implications among these populations.

Diseases

Pearl millet in Namibia

In Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south....
, pearl millet is known as "mahangu" and is grown mainly in the north of that country, where it is the staple food

Staple food

A staple food is a food that can be stored for use throughout the year and forms the basis of a traditional diet. Staple foods vary from place to place, but are typically inexpensive starchy foods of vegetable origin that are high in food energy and carbohydrate....
. In the dry, unpredictable climate of this area it grows better than alternatives such as maize

Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
.

Mahangu is usually made into a porridge

Porridge

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats or another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is eaten in a flat bowl or a dish....
called "oshifima" (or "oshithima"), or ferment

Fermentation (food)

Fermentation in food processing typically refers to the conversion of sugar to alcohol using yeast under anaerobic conditions. A more general definition of fermentation is the chemical conversion of carbohydrates into alcohols or acids....
ed to make a drink called "ontaku" or "oshikundu".

Traditionally the mahangu is pounded with heavy pieces of wood in a 'pounding area'. The floor of the pounding area is covered with a cementlike coating made from the material of termite

Termite

The termites are a group of social insects usually classified at the Taxonomy of Order Isoptera . As truly social animals, they are termed eusocial along with the ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate Order Hymenoptera....
mounds. As a result, some sand and grit gets into the pounded mahangu, so products like oshifima are usually swallowed without chewing. After pounding, winnowing may be used to remove the chaff

Chaff

Chaff is the inedible, dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain, or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material such as scaly parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw....
.

Some industrial grain processing facilities now exist, such as those operated by Namib Mills

Namib Mills

Namib Mills Ltd, established in 1982, is the largest cereal processing company in Namibia. It produces flour, pasta, animal feeds and other products from raw materials including maize, much of which is imported, and local varieties of pearl millet ....
. Efforts are also being made to develop smaller scale processing using food extrusion

Extrusion

Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section profile. A material is pushed or drawn through a Die of the desired cross-section....
and other methods. In a food extruder, the mahangu is milled into a paste before being forced through metal die

Die

Die may refer to:...
. Products made this way include breakfast cereals, including puffed grain

Puffed grain

Puffed grain includes ancient puffed grains like popcorn as well as puffed rice. Modern puffed grains are often created using high pressure.High pressure puffed grain is created by placing whole grains under high pressure with steam....
s and porridge

Porridge

Porridge, or porage, is a simple dish made by boiling oats or another cereal in water, milk, or both. It is eaten in a flat bowl or a dish....
, pasta shapes, and "rice".

Recently more productive varieties of pearl millet have been introduced enabling farmers to increase production considerably.

External links

- released by the National Research Council in 1996