Millet: small-seeded grasses

The grasses known collectively as millets are a set of highly variable small seeded plant species indigenous to many areas of the world.

The name ‘millet’ is derived from the Latin milium, which is similar to the Greek meline, the classical names for millet, based on the world for thousands, referring to the large number of grains of the plant.

Millet includes finger, pearl, foxtail varieties and proso millet. Off all the millets, pearl millet is the most widely used throughout the world.

Millets are well adapted to grow under low soil fertility, low moisture and hot environmental conditions. Therefore the seed is available in times of crisis.

The protein content of millet is relatively high and its nutritional value is similar to that of sorghum and corn. 

Millets have been utilized for human food form prehistoric times. Currently, millets are consumed in northern China, India, Africa and southern USSR.
Millet: small-seeded grasses

Millet

Millet
Millet is general name for small seed grasses. It includes finger, pearl, foxtail varieties and proso (the most common) millet.

Sorghum is a special type of millet with large seeds, typically used for animal feed, but it is the primary food grain in many parts of the world where it is ground and made into porridge and cakes.

It is also used to yield oil, sugars and alcoholic beverages.

A common variety of sorghum grown in the United States is milo; there are also waxy varieties that contain very little amylase.

Overall, sorghums are resistant to heat and drought, and therefore , are of special value in acid and hot regions of the world.

A very tiny millet grain that has been used for centuries in the Ethiopian diet is teff or t’ef (signifying “love” and “grass”), commonly used in flatbread.
Millet

Sorghum

Sorghum
The genus of Sorghum is found in warm, dry climates, especially in Africa, India, Pakistan, China and the Southern USA where its members are grown as important grain or forage crops. Because sorghums have been in cultivation for a long time and because interspecific hybrids are easily formed, the taxonomy of the genus is somewhat confused.

Until recently the cultivated types were loosely grouped together in the species Sorghum vulgare, but a thorough revision of taxonomic relationships suggests that Sorghum bicolor is the species to which the grain crops should belong.

The seed of grain sorghum or dura as it is often called, contains no gluten, and hence is by itself not suitable for bread making. Normally for human consumption the grain is group into flour, mixed with water or fat and cooked to form a porridge or batter.

Alternatively, the grain is fed to pigs or poultry, its starch may be used for a variety of purposes such as an adhesive or for sizing or it may be fermented to produce alcohol. Sorghum are also grown as forage crops and may produce high yields of the order of 30,000 kg/ha from several cuts throughout the year.

Best resulted are obtained from special forage types such as sorgo, sweet or sugar sorghum which is variously described as a variety of sorghum or as a separate species (Sorghum saccharatum). Sudan grass (S. Sudanese), a tall and tufted tropical grass, is often used top produce hybrids with sorghum, as for example the production forage plants Sudax or Sordan.

One possible problem with these forages is that contained in the leaves there may be a cyanogenic glycoside, dhurrin, which when eaten by animals hydrolyses to form poisonous hydrogen cyanide.

In ruminants, hydrogen cyanide is rapidly detoxified in the rumen and liver by reaction with sulphide or cystine, but the danger of toxicity remains of glycoside levels are high or sulphur intake is low. The problem can be avoided by the choice of safe cultivars by not allowing stock to graze very immature growth, or by feeding as hay or silage.
Sorghum