Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana)
Patrick Byrne
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
Corresponding author<EMAIL_ADDRESS>OUTLINE
- Overview
- Origin and domestication
- Production and use
- Conservation and breeding
- International Year of Millets
- References
- Chapter information
1. OVERVIEW
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana subsp. coracana) is an annual self-pollinated tetraploid cereal crop grown for its nutritious seeds, mostly in semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia. Its common name refers to the similarity of the seed head to an upturned hand with projecting fingers. The crop is tolerant to drought, salinity, and low fertility, and has relatively few pests and diseases. Due to its climate resilience, nutritional benefits, and importance for food security of smallholder farmers, finger millet is now receiving much overdue research attention, as described by Kamenya et al. (2021), Tadele (2019), and Talabi et al. (2022).
Learn more about the state of finger millet in Western Kenya in this Crop Trust article.
2. ORIGIN AND DOMESTICATION
Domestication of E. coracana subsp. coracana from the wild progenitor E. coracana subsp. africana is believed to have occurred in the Ethiopian and Ugandan highlands about 5,000 years ago (Kamenya et al., 2021; Wikipedia, 2023). A major difference between the wild and domesticated forms is the lack of shattering (dispersal of seeds as they ripen) in the latter (van Wyk, 2005). The domesticated subspecies appeared in India during the first millennium BCE (van Wyk, 2005), and India is now considered a secondary center of diversity (Kamenya et al., 2021).
3. PRODUCTION AND USE
Finger millet, sometimes known as ragi, is an important crop of smallholder farmers in India, Nepal, and the highlands of eastern and southern Africa. The crop is usually grown rainfed in marginal areas. It is adapted to altitudes up to 2000 meters—higher than most other tropical cereals. Harvest, threshing, and winnowing of the small seed is often done by hand (van Wyk, 2005). Among the different millets, finger millet is reported to have the highest productivity (1591 kg/ha) followed by pearl millet (1130 kg/ha) (Meena et al., 2016).
The crop is resilient to many abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, and low fertility soils (Kamenya et al., 2021), and has relatively few insect and disease problems. However, in Africa it is attacked by the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica (Kamenya et al., 2021). An additional advantage of finger millet is that the harvested grain can be stored for long periods of time without damage from insect pests, as long as it is dried to a low moisture content (Mgonja et al., 2007). This makes it an important famine food that can be stored in case of future crop failure (Rodríguez et al., 2020).
Finger millet is considered a nutritional powerhouse with high levels of calcium and other essential minerals, dietary fiber, and amino acids such as methionine (Talabi et al., 2022; Sruthi and Rao,