9 - Millet

Abstract

The millets are various grass crops that are extremely important in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones as staple crops for animals and humans. According to FAO data, the productions of millets increased slightly from 24.8 million tonnes in the 1980s to 28–34.9 million tonnes in the period 2001–2008. Proso millet, also named common millet, hog millet, broom corn, yellow hog, hershey and white millet, is one of the oldest crops known to mankind. Proso millet contains a high level of methionine and cystine and therefore is nutritionally equivalent or superior to maize, rice, wheat, rice and sorghum where these vital amino acids are deficient or low. As proso millet is not closely related to wheat, it represents an appropriate food for people with coeliac disease or other forms of allergy or intolerance to wheat. Several foods are prepared from proso millet, and then differ from country to country. Primary uses for proso millet include various forms of porridge, steamed food products, cakes, fermented and unfermented breads, snacks, weaning foods and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. With the world faced with climatic alterations, proso millet with its distinctive ability to grow in hot dry areas with poor soils should become a far more globally important food grain.