Millet, post harvest

Post-harvest conservation of the crop can be a cheap and profitable way of increasing food supplies. Some research shows that the post-harvest losses caused by rats, moulds and insects can be up to 25% of the total crop harvest.

»  Storage and processing of sorghum and millet

After harvesting, the millet is piled in heaps for a few days and stored as heads.

Finger millet can be stored for over 10 years without any significant deterioration in quality. This is because during storage insect pests do not attack it. In Africa, it is mainly threshed by beating with sticks.

Pearl millet can be stored as grains or heads and has very good storage. Compared to other grain cereals and legumes, the pearl millet grains are rarely attacked by weevils while in storage.

According to ICRISAT, millet grain is staple food for majority of household in the world's poorest countries and among the poorest people.
Pearl millet

In a majority of semiarid communities, pearl millet is cooked and eaten, while the straw is valuable livestock feed, fuel woods and building material.

In the US, pearl millet is primarily grown as livestock feed as forage, hay or silage. Besides it's use as food in Latin America, the crop is also increasingly being used as mulch component in no-till soybeans production on acidic soils.1
Finger millet

Finger millet is an important staple food crop for people in East and Central Africa where it's eaten as porridge or stiff mush (made by adding flour to boiling water until right consistency is got). Besides being staple food crop, it can also be used for brewing and malting.
References

» Project Reports

According to ICRISAT, millet grain is the staple food for the majority of households in the world's poorest countries and among the poorest people.

»  Senegal stew with millet
»  Various recipes using millet flour
»  Millet (100%) cookies with nut-grits
»  Some recipes based on sorghum and millets (from FAO)