Finger millet ( Eleusine coracana) is an Annual plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and semiarid areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and Self-pollination species probably evolved from its wild relative Eleusine africana.
Finger millet is native to the Ethiopian and highlands.[A.C. D'Andrea, D.E. Lyons, Mitiku Haile, E.A. Butler, "Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to the Study of Prehistoric Agriculture in the Ethiopian Highlands" in Van der Veen, ed., The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. Kluwer Academic: Plenum Publishers, New York City, 1999.] Interesting crop characteristics of finger millet are the ability to withstand cultivation at altitudes over above sea level, its high drought tolerance, and the long storage time of the grains.
History
Finger millet originated in
East Africa (Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands). It was claimed to have been found in an Indian archaeological site dated to 1800 BCE (Late Bronze Age);
however, this was subsequently demonstrated to be incorrectly identified cleaned grains of hulled millets.
The oldest record of finger millet comes from an archaeological site in Africa dating to the 3rd millennium B.C.
By 1996, cultivation of finger millet in Africa was declining rapidly because of the large amount of labor it required, with farmers preferring to grow nutritionally-inferior but less labor-intensive crops such as maize, sorghum, and cassava. Such a decline was not seen in Asia, however.
Taxonomy and botanical description
Finger millet is under the genus
Eleusine Gaertn.
Growing regions
Main cultivation areas are parts of eastern and southern Africaparticularly
Uganda,
Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Zimbabwe,
Zambia,
Malawi, and
parts of
India and
Nepal.
It is also grown in southern
Sudan and "as far south" in Africa as
Mozambique.
Climate requirements
Finger millet is a
short-day plant with a growing optimum 12 hours of daylight for most varieties. Its main growing area ranges from 20°N to 20°S, meaning mainly the semiarid to arid tropics. Nevertheless, finger millet is found to be grown at 30°N in the
Himalayas region (India and Nepal). It is generally considered as a drought-tolerant crop, but compared with other millets, such as
pearl millet and
sorghum, it prefers moderate rainfall ( annually). The majority of worldwide finger millet farmers grow it rainfed, although yields often can be significantly improved when irrigation is applied. In India, finger millet is a typical
rabi (dry-winter season) crop. Heat tolerance of finger millet is high. For Ugandan finger millet varieties, for instance, the optimal average growth temperature ranges at about 27 °C, while the minimal temperatures should not be lower than 18 °C. Relative to other species (pearl millet and sorghum), finger millet has a higher tolerance to cool temperatures. It is grown from about above sea level (e.g. in Himalaya region). Hence, it can be cultivated on higher elevations than most tropical crops. Finger millet can grow on various soils, including highly weathered tropical
Laterite soils. It thrives in free-draining soils with steady moisture levels. Furthermore, it can tolerate
soil salinity up to a certain extent. Its ability to bear waterlogging is limited, so good drainage of the soils and moderate water-holding capacity are optimal.
Finger millet can tolerate moderately acidic soils (pH 5), but also moderately alkaline soils (pH 8.2).
Cropping systems
Finger millet monocrops grown under rainfed conditions are most common in drier areas of Eastern Africa. In addition,
intercropping with legumes, such as
cowpea or
pigeon pea, are also quite common in East Africa. Tropical Central Africa supports scattered regions of finger millet intercropping mostly with
, but also with
cassava,
Cooking banana, and vegetables.
Most common finger millet intercropping systems in South India are as follows:
Weeds
Weeds are the major biotic stresses for finger millet cultivation. Its seeds are very small, which leads to a relatively slow development in early growing stages. This makes finger millet a weak competitor for light, water, and nutrients compared with weeds.
In East and Southern Africa, the closely related species
Eleusine indica (common name Indian goose grass) is a severe weed competitor of finger millet. Especially in early growing stages of the crop and the weed and when broadcast seeding instead of row seeding is applied (as often the case in East Africa), the two species are very difficult to distinguish.
Besides
Eleusine indica, the species
Xanthium strumarium, which is animal dispersed and the
stolon-owning species
Cyperus rotundus and
Cynodon dactylon are important finger millet weeds.
Measures to control weeds include cultural, physical, and chemical methods. Cultural methods could be sowing in rows instead of broadcast sowing to make distinction between finger millet seedlings and
E. indica easier when hand weeding.
ICRISAT promotes
and
to disrupt the growing cycle of the weeds. Physical weed control in financial resource-limited communities growing finger millet are mainly hand weeding or weeding with a hand hoe.
Diseases and pests
Finger millet is generally seen as not very prone to diseases and pests. Nonetheless, finger millet blast, caused by the fungal pathogen
Magnaporthe grisea (anamorph
Pyricularia grisea), can locally cause severe damages, especially when untreated.
In Uganda, yield losses up to 80% were reported in bad years. The pathogen leads to drying out of leaves, neck rots, and ear rots.
These symptoms can drastically impair
photosynthesis, translocation of photosynthetic assimilates, and grain filling, so reduce yield and grain quality. Finger millet blast can also infest finger millet weeds such as the closely related
E. indica,
E. africana,
Digitaria spp.,
Setaria spp., and
Doctylocterium spp.
Finger millet blast can be controlled with cultural measures, chemical treatments, and the use of resistant varieties. Researchers in Kenya have screened wild relatives of finger millet and landraces for resistance to blast.
Cultural measures to control finger millet blast suggested by ICRISAT for Eastern Africa include crop rotations with nonhost crops such as
, deep ploughing under of finger millet straw on infected fields, washing of field tools after use to prevent dissemination of the pathogen to uninfected fields, weed control to reduce infections by weed hosts, and avoiding of high plant densities to impede the pathogen dispersal from plant to plant.
Chemical measures can be direct spraying of systemic
, such as the active ingredients pyroquilon or
with fungicides, such as trycyclozole.
Striga, a parasitic weed which occurs naturally in parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia, can severely affect the crop and yield losses in finger millet and other cereals by 20 to 80%.
Insects
The pink stem borer (
Sesamia inferens) and the finger millet shoot fly (
Atherigona miliaceae)
are considered as the most relevant insect pests in finger millet cultivation.
Measures to control
Sesamia inferens are uprooting of infected plants, destroying of stubbles, having a crop rotation, chemical control with
, biological measures such as
pheromone traps, or biological pest control with the use of antagonistic organisms (e.g.
Sturmiopsis inferens).
Other insect pests include:
- Root feeders
-
root aphid Tetraneura nigriabdominalis
- Shoot and stem feeders
-
Atherigona miliaceae and Atherigona soccata
-
Sesamia inferens
-
stem weevil Listronotus bonariensis
- Leaf feeders
-
hairy caterpillars, Amsacta albistriga, Amsacta transiens, and Amsacta moorei
-
cutworms, Agrotis ipsilon
-
armyworm larvae of Spodoptera exempta, Spodoptera mauritia, and Mythimna separata
-
leaf-folder Cnaphalocrocis medinalis larvae
-
skipper Pelopidas mathias larvae
-
grasshoppers, Chrotogonus hemipterus, Nomadacris septemfasciata, and Locusta migratoria
-
beetle grubs of Chnootriba similis
-
thrip, Heliothrips indicus
- Sucking pests
-
aphids, Hysteroneura setariae, Metopolophium dirhodum, Rhopalosiphum maidis, and Sitobion miscanthi
-
mealy bug, Brevennia rehi
-
leaf hoppers Cicadulina bipunctella and Cicadulina chinai
Propagation and sowing
Propagation in finger millet farming is done mainly by seeds. In rainfed cropping, four sowing methods are used:
-
Broadcasting: Seeds are directly sown in the field. This is the common method because it is the easiest way and no special machinery is required. The organic weed management with this method is a problem, because it is difficult to distinguish between weed and crop.
-
Line Sowing: Improved sowing compared to broadcasting. Facilitates organic weed management due to better distinction of weed and crop. In this method, spacing of 22 cm to 30 cm between lines and 8 cm to 10 cm within lines should be maintained. The seeds should be sown about 3 cm deep in the soil.
-
Drilling in rows: Seeds are sown directly in the untreated soil by using a direct-seed drill. This method is used in conservation agriculture.
-
Transplanting the seedlings: Raising the seedlings in nursery beds and transplant to the main field. Leveling and watering of beds is required during transplanting. Seedlings with 4 weeks age should be transplanted in the field. For early Rabi and Kharif season, seedlings should be transplanted at 25 cm x 10 cm and for late Kharif season at 30 cm x 10 cm. Planting should be done 3 cm depth in the soil
Harvest
Crop does not mature uniformly and hence the harvest is to be taken up in two stages. When the earhead on the main shoot and 50% of the earheads on the crop turn brown, the crop is ready for the first harvest. At the first harvest, all earheads that have turned brown should be cut. After this drying, threshing and cleaning the grains by winnowing. The second harvest is around seven days after the first. All earheads, including the green ones, should be cut. The grains should then be cured to obtain maturity by heaping the harvested earheads in shade for one day without drying, so that the humidity and temperature increase and the grains get cured. After this drying, threshing and cleaning as after the first harvesting.
Storage
Once harvested, the
keep extremely well and are seldom attacked by
or moulds. Finger millet can be kept for up to 10 years when it is unthreshed. Some sources report a storage duration up to 50 years under good storage conditions.
The long storage capacity makes finger millet an important
Agriculture in risk-avoidance strategies as a famine crop for farming communities.
Processing
Milling
As a first step of processing finger millet can be milled to produce
flour. However, finger millet is difficult to mill due to the small size of the seeds and because the
bran is bound very tightly to the
endosperm. Furthermore, the delicate seed can get crushed during the milling. The development of commercial mechanical milling systems for finger millet is challenging. Therefore, the main product of finger millet is
Whole Grain flour. This has disadvantages, such as reduced storage time of the flour due to the high oil content. Furthermore, the industrial use of whole grain finger millet flour is limited. Moistening the millet seeds prior to grinding helps to remove the bran mechanically without causing damage to the rest of the seed. The mini millet mill can also be used to process other grains such as
wheat and
sorghum.
Malting
Another method to process the finger millet grain is germinating the seed. This process is also called
malting and is very common in the production of brewed beverages such as
beer. When finger millet is germinated, enzymes are activated, which transfer
into other
such as
. Finger millet has a good malting activity. The malted finger millet can be used as a substrate to produce for example gluten-free beer or easily digestible food for infants.
Nutrition
Finger millet is 11% water, 7% protein, 54%
, and 2%
fat (table). In a 100 gram (3.5 oz) reference amount, finger millet supplies 305
, and is a rich source (20% or more of the
Daily Value, DV) of
dietary fiber and several dietary minerals, especially
iron at 87% DV (table).
Growing finger millet to improve nutrition
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (
ICRISAT), a member of the
CGIAR consortium, partners with farmers, governments, researchers and NGOs to help farmers grow nutritious crops, including finger millet. This helps their communities have more balanced diets and become more resilient to pests and drought. For example, the Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of Sorghum and Millets in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (HOPE) project is increasing yields of finger millet in
Tanzania by encouraging farmers to grow improved varieties.
Use
Finger millet can be ground into a
flour and cooked into cakes,
or
porridge. The flour is made into a
fermented drink (or
beer) in
Nepal and in many parts of Africa. The
straw from finger millet is used as animal fodder.
In India
Finger millet is a staple grain in many parts of India, especially
Karnataka, where it is known as
ragi (from
Kannada language ರಾಗಿ
rāgi). It is malted and its grain is ground into
flour.
There are numerous ways to prepare finger millet, including dosa, idli, and Ragi mudde. In South India, on Pediatrics recommendation, finger millet is used in preparing baby food, because of millet's high Nutrition, especially iron and calcium. Satva, pole (dosa), bhakri, ambil (a sour porridge), and pappad are common dishes made using finger millet. In Karnataka, finger millet is generally consumed in the form of a porridge called ragi mudde in Kannada. It is the staple diet of many residents of South Karnataka. Mudde is prepared by cooking the ragi flour with water to achieve a dough-like consistency. This is then rolled into balls of desired size and consumed with sambar (huli), saaru (ಸಾರು), or curries. Ragi is also used to make roti, idli, dosa and conjee. In the Malnad region of Karnataka, the whole ragi grain is soaked and the milk is extracted to make a dessert known as keelsa. A type of flat bread is prepared using finger millet flour (called ragi rotti in Kannada) in Northern districts of Karnataka.
In Tamil Nadu, ragi is called kezhvaragu (கேழ்வரகு) and also has other names like keppai, ragi, and ariyam.
Ragi flour
To make the flour, ragi is graded and washed. It is allowed to dry naturally in sunlight for 5 to 8 hours. It is then powdered. Ragi porridge, ragi halwa, ragi ela ada, and ragi kozhukatta can be made with
ragi flour.
All-purpose flour can be replaced with ragi flour during baking. Ragi cake and ragi biscuits can be prepared.
The flour is consumed with
milk, boiled water, or
yogurt. The flour is made into flatbreads, including thin, leavened dosa and thicker, unleavened
roti.
In South and Far East Asia
In
Nepal, a thick dough (
ḍhĩḍo) made of millet flour (
kōdō) is cooked and eaten by hand. The dough, on other hand, can be made into thick bread (
rotee) spread over flat utensil and heating it. Fermented millet is used to make a beer
chhaang and the mash is distilled to make a liquor (
rakśiशी). Whole grain millet is fermented to make
tongba. Its use in holy Hindu practices is barred especially by upper castes. In Nepal, the National Plant Genetic Resource Centre at Khumaltar maintains 877 accessions (samples) of Nepalese finger millet (kodo).
In Sri Lanka, finger millet is called kurakkan and is made into kurakkan roti – an earthy brown thick roti with coconut and thallapa – a thick dough made of ragi by boiling it with water and some salt until like a dough ball. It is then eaten with a spicy meat curry and is usually swallowed in small balls, rather than chewing. It is also eaten as a porridge (kurrakan kenda) and as a sweet called 'Halape'. In northwest Vietnam, finger millet is used as a medicine for women at childbirth. A minority use finger millet flour to make alcohol.
As beverage
Ragi malt porridge is made from finger millet which is soaked and shadow dried, then roasted and ground. This preparation is boiled in water and used as a substitute for milk powder-based beverages.
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