MILLET: THE LOST GRAIN AND ITS POSSIBLE REVIVAL AS AN ANSWER TO FOOD SHORTAGE By Augusto V. de Viana, Ph.D .
In memory and gratitude to Dr. Florentino H. Hornedo who inspired this project
There was once a cereal widely cultivated and consumed by precolonial Filipinos
Along with rice precolonial Filipinos cultivated millet with other cereals
Aside from rice and millet our ancestors cultivated sorghum
Sorghum was used as food and also for the making of alcoholic drinks
Millet is an important food source It is one of the important source of Carbohydrates It is a cereal and it comes from a family Of grasses which includes rice, wheat, Barley, rye, sorghum, sugarcane and Bamboo Millet is one of the major cereal foods Which include wheat, rice, barley, rye, And sorghum. Although its role has been diminished It is the sixth important grain of the world Feeding one third of the world’s population
I ts exact origin is unknown but it is believed to have originated from Mesopotamia and Africa Millet is one of the oldest human foods Domesticated by man. It is probably The world’s oldest food grain as it was Cultivated 7000 years ago in Mesopotamia and it was mentioned in the Bible In Ezekiel 4:9 as the grain for making Bread. The Babylonians treasured it As one of the plants grown in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Millet antedated rice in China. In 2005 Chinese archeologists unearthed a perfectly preserved 4000 year old bowl containing long yellow noodles made from foxtail millet. Millet meal cakes have also been discovered. The earliest written record of millet, "Fan Shen Chih Shu" 2800 BC, gives detailed instructions for growing and storing the grain, and lists it as one of the five sacred Chinese crops along with soybeans, rice, wheat, and barley.
Millet around the world • Herodotus wrote that millet plants grew taller than men • The Egyptians grew millet in hot summer climates • The Moors discovered that millet grows quickly and matures swiftly. • It was the Romans that gave millet its name from the word “ millium ” • They produced a porridge called puls which was similat to the Etruscan pulmentum
• Marco Polo wrote that the Chinese never experienced famine since they used panic millet • The Tartars used rice panic millet and rice • The Emperor Charlemage ordered his people to store millet for the lenten months. • Millet was the main grain of • Europe and was grown more instead of wheat
Millet in the Philippines • Called by the Visayans as Daba or Dawa and this was recorded by Fr. Francisco Ignacio Alcina. • Known in the Batanes as Raut • four types of millet are known to exist in the Philippines: pearl millet, foxtail, finger and proso millet
During the precolonial period millet as well as rice were festal foods
However rice culture gained ascendancy and the use of other grains declined
Rice is even romanticized in Philippine art
Millet all but disappeared in most part of the Philippines
The cause for the decline was it was too labor-intensive
It is mentioned as one of the foods of the native Filipinos • But was later overtaken by rice • Now known as “bird seed “ or animal feed
Millet can only be seen in few areas of the country and it is very expensive • Its cultivation is reported to be in the hinterlands of Samar, Leyte, Negros and the Batanes province
Millet is eaten as porridge or as rice cakes or suman
Findings and Recommendations • Millet has been produced in the Philippines since time immemorial. Though its origin is thought to be outside of the Philippines, it is classified as an indigenous flora. It has been given local names such as dawa in the Visayas, raut in Batanes • Together with rice it was also a festal meal. It was mentioned by William Henry Scott as one of the grains produced in Northern Luzon.
Types of millet found in the research • The type of millet produced in the Batanes area is the pearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum) which is also grown in India and the United States. Other varieties of millet is the finger millet ( Eleusine coracana) proso millet ( Panicum miliaceum) and the foxtail millet (Setaria italica .
Why millet production should be revived • Millet is found to be resistant to drought and does not need “wet” irrigation as do lowland rice. It performs well in soils of high salinity or low ph. • Millet does not need heavy irrigation like wet rice agriculture. Millet may thrive well on sunny and well-drained areas. • Not prone to pests. Rat infestation is a concern. According to farmers that c ultivate it birds cannot eat the seeds unless the whole plant has fallen to the ground
Millet is a healthy food • As a food source it digests easily. It acts as a prebiotic feedstock for microflora in the intestines. It hydrates the colon and keeps one from being constipated; it was found out that people such as those in the southern Himalayas who consume millet tend to have excellent health and live longer lives.
Comparison of Millet with Other Millet Varieties with Rice and Wheat [1] Crop / Protein Fiber Mineral Iron( Calcium( Nutrie (g) (g) s(g) mg) mg) nt [1 Pearl 10.6 1.3 2.3 16.9 38 millet Finger 7.3 3.6 2.7 3.9 344 millet Foxtai l 12.3 8 3.3 2.8 31 millet Proso 12.5 2.2 1.9 0.8 14 millet Kodo 8.3 9 2.6 0.5 27 millet Little 7.7 7.6 1.5 9.3 17 millet Barny ard 11.2 10.1 4.4 15.2 11 millet Rice 6.8 0.2 0.6 0.7 10 [1] Source: Millet Network of India, http://www.milletindia.org Whea 11.8 1.2 1.5 5.3 41 t
India is today’s biggest producer of millet Rank Country Amount (Metric Tons) 1 India 11,000,000 2 Nigeria 5,800,000 3 Niger 3,200,000 4 China 1,800,000 5 Mali 1,600,000 6 Burkina Faso 1,100,00 8 Ethiopia 700,000 9 Chad 700,000 10 Senegal 560,000
On the other hand the Philippines is one of the world’s biggest importer of rice Rank Country Rice Imported (1,000 metric tons) 1 China 4,700 2 Nigeria 3,000 3 Philippines 1,800 4 Iran 1,600 5 Indonesia 1,600 6 Saudi Arabia 1,550 7 European Union 1,500 8 Iraq 1,200 9 Senegal 1,100 10 Malaysia 1,000
Challenge to Millet revival as a popular food source • The main problem of millet production is the laborious method of pounding to separate the grain from the chaff. Unlike rice whose production is mechanized. This accounts for the high price of millet at P200 a kilo. •
• Because of the laborious method of separating the grain from the chaff, many farmers are abandoning millet production in favor of other food crops such as white ube, camote and upland rice in the Basco, Batanes area. The abandonment of the planting of millet may spell the end of the culture of planting the commodity in the province. According to Dr. Hornedo there used to be four species of millet that used to exist in the province. According to him only two remain varieties remain. To prevent millet cultivation from completely disappearing, Dr. Hornedo said he paid farmers to continue planting the crop.
• Millet can be a viable food source if milling the grain becomes mechanized. The author imported a millet milling machine from the United States and upon trials in Manila it as found out that the separation of the grain from the chaff can be done more easily.
• The author donated two] milling machines to be used in Batanes. These machines were brought back to Batanes. One unit to be given to Basco and the other to Sabtang. Unfortunately the researcher was not able to make a follow-up of the effect of the machines due to the unexpected demise of Dr. Hornedo last December 9, 2015.
• The continued cultivation of millet can be an answer to our need for food security. Since the plant does not need too much water as in wet-rice agriculture and relatively poorer soils. It is also an answer to El Niño and climate change since millet is drought resistant.
Millet is also an answer to solving malnutrition among Filipinos • Millet is said to be highly nutritious. It is said to be rich in copper, phosphorous, manganese and magnesium. Compared to other cereals millet has more energy, protein, fat, fiber, iron, manganese, phosphorous, potassium and since than cassava, wheat, rice, sweet corn and potato. It has more niacin, riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid and vitamin b6 than the same food crops.
Millet production should be modernized • Motors can be installed in milling machines to replace the mortar and pestle method. • Revival of millet production will revive the old traditions of the millet-producing areas as well as research should be conducted to create new products from millet.
Recommendations • This study offers the following recommendations: • The cultivation of millet should continue due to the following reasons • Food security – it is an answer to solving the problem of hunger and malnutrition. • Cultural significance – continued cultivation will ensure the preservation of the culture of the people in the affected locality.
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