Millet, finger millet

Finger millet is an annual robust grass that grows to a height of 40-100cm. It's mainly grown as a grain cereal in Semiarid tropics and sub tropics of the world under rain fed conditions. The straw can be used as fodder and the fields are often grazed after harvesting.

Finger millet is a staple food crop in the majority of drought prone areas in the world. In these communities, it is considered an important component of the food security strategies.

It also provides an excellent dietary source of methionine and is productive in a wide range of agro-ecological environments.

Other names of finger millet include; ragi, birdsfoot millet, coracana millet and African millet.

Finger millet belongs to the Genus Eleusine in the tribe Eragrostideae. Two species are commonly recognised thus: Eleusine coracana, which is the cultivated form and the wild types (Eleusine africana and Eleusine indica). Mehra (1963) recognises two types of cultivars under E.coracana thus: (1) African highland types and Afro-Asiatic types.

Unlike pearl millet and sorghum, finger millet grows best in moist climates. In Africa and India, its grown in areas with rainfall ranging from 800-1200mm, in which there is a long hot dry season.

»  ¹Crop Production in the Tropics and Subtropics at the Institute of Crop
     Science, University Kassel
»  ²Arie von der Velden, Harvesting in the middle hills
»  ³Sorghum and millets in human nutrition. (FAO Food and Nutrition Series, No.
     27) Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 1995
»  ⁴Pearl Millet - Sorghum, The Culinary Staples of Rural West Africa Michigan
     Technical University
»  ⁵CGIAR online, Areas of Research: Millet
»  ⁶Zel and Reuben Allen, Vegetarians in Paradise
»  ⁷CAB International, Crop Protection