Lost Crops of Africa

Lost Crops of Africa PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309176891
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
Scenes of starvation have drawn the world's attention to Africa's agricultural and environmental crisis. Some observers question whether this continent can ever hope to feed its growing population. Yet there is an overlooked food resource in sub-Saharan Africa that has vast potential: native food plants. When experts were asked to nominate African food plants for inclusion in a new book, a list of 30 species grew quickly to hundreds. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 native grains and fruitsâ€""lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation. This volume focuses on native cereals, including: African rice, reserved until recently as a luxury food for religious rituals. Finger millet, neglected internationally although it is a staple for millions. Fonio (acha), probably the oldest African cereal and sometimes called "hungry rice." Pearl millet, a widely used grain that still holds great untapped potential. Sorghum, with prospects for making the twenty-first century the "century of sorghum." Tef, in many ways ideal but only now enjoying budding commercial production. Other cultivated and wild grains. This readable and engaging book dispels myths, often based on Western bias, about the nutritional value, flavor, and yield of these African grains. Designed as a tool for economic development, the volume is organized with increasing levels of detail to meet the needs of both lay and professional readers. The authors present the available information on where and how each grain is grown, harvested, and processed, and they list its benefits and limitations as a food source. The authors describe "next steps" for increasing the use of each grain, outline research needs, and address issues in building commercial production. Sidebars cover such interesting points as the potential use of gene mapping and other "high-tech" agricultural techniques on these grains. This fact-filled volume will be of great interest to agricultural experts, entrepreneurs, researchers, and individuals concerned about restoring food production, environmental health, and economic opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection, Newbridge Garden Book Club

Lost Crops of Africa

Lost Crops of Africa PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309176891
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Get Book Here

Book Description
Scenes of starvation have drawn the world's attention to Africa's agricultural and environmental crisis. Some observers question whether this continent can ever hope to feed its growing population. Yet there is an overlooked food resource in sub-Saharan Africa that has vast potential: native food plants. When experts were asked to nominate African food plants for inclusion in a new book, a list of 30 species grew quickly to hundreds. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 native grains and fruitsâ€""lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation. This volume focuses on native cereals, including: African rice, reserved until recently as a luxury food for religious rituals. Finger millet, neglected internationally although it is a staple for millions. Fonio (acha), probably the oldest African cereal and sometimes called "hungry rice." Pearl millet, a widely used grain that still holds great untapped potential. Sorghum, with prospects for making the twenty-first century the "century of sorghum." Tef, in many ways ideal but only now enjoying budding commercial production. Other cultivated and wild grains. This readable and engaging book dispels myths, often based on Western bias, about the nutritional value, flavor, and yield of these African grains. Designed as a tool for economic development, the volume is organized with increasing levels of detail to meet the needs of both lay and professional readers. The authors present the available information on where and how each grain is grown, harvested, and processed, and they list its benefits and limitations as a food source. The authors describe "next steps" for increasing the use of each grain, outline research needs, and address issues in building commercial production. Sidebars cover such interesting points as the potential use of gene mapping and other "high-tech" agricultural techniques on these grains. This fact-filled volume will be of great interest to agricultural experts, entrepreneurs, researchers, and individuals concerned about restoring food production, environmental health, and economic opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection, Newbridge Garden Book Club

Pearl Millet

Pearl Millet PDF Author: Ramasamy Perumal
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0891184058
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
In this age of climate change, discover how pearl millet is considered a viable alternative cereal crop for semi-arid and hot areas Pearl millet, a warm-season, dryland cereal crop, is a staple food for over 90 million people in Africa and Asia. Its nutritional superiority relative to other cereal crops, such as rice, wheat, maize, and sorghum, and its hardiness and adaptability to harsh environments and poor soils make it a potentially life-saving resource for poor populations and/or areas hit by damaging climatic conditions. With climate change Placing an ever-greater strain on global agrifood systems, pearl millet has never been a more important crop in the fight against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. Pearl Millet offers a thorough introduction to this potentially vital grain. Coming on the heels of a 2023 United Nations declaration of the “International Year of Millets,” it is a crucial intervention in an essential humanitarian project. It is the first comprehensive book on the subject to appear in print. Key Features: Analysis of a potential lead crop for climate-change-affected areas Detailed coverage of all pearl millet’s unique features, such as inherent genetic diversity, gluten free applications, and suitability for double cropping An author team with vast research and crop development experience Pearl Millet is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, certified and practicing professionals, as well as industry and academic researchers.

Sorghum and Pearl Millet as Climate Resilient Crops for Food and Nutrition Security

Sorghum and Pearl Millet as Climate Resilient Crops for Food and Nutrition Security PDF Author: Mahalingam Govindaraj
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832501435
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description


Millets and Sorghum

Millets and Sorghum PDF Author: Jagannath V. Patil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119123054
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Millets and sorghum are extremely important crops in many developing nations and because of the ability of many of them to thrive in low-moisture situations they represent some exciting opportunities for further development to address the continuing and increasing impact of global temperature increase on the sustainability of the world’s food crops. The main focus of this thorough new book is the potential for crop improvement through new and traditional methods, with the book’s main chapters covering the following crops: sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail milet, proso millet, little millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, tef and fonio. Further chapters cover pests and diseases, nutritional and industrial importance, novel tools for improvement, and seed systems in millets. Millets and Sorghum provides full and comprehensive coverage of these crucially important crops, their biology, world status and potential for improvement, and is an essential purchase for crop and plant scientists, and food scientists and technologists throughout the developed and developing world. All libraries in universities and research establishment where biological and agricultural sciences are studied and taught should have copies of this important book on their shelves.

Cereals and Millets

Cereals and Millets PDF Author: Chittaranjan Kole
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 354034389X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Part of the seven-volume series Genome Mapping and Molecular Breeding in Plants, this book covers Cereals and Millets, which provide staple food for most of the earth’s population. This book includes chapters on rice, wheat, maize, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, pearl millet, foxtail millet and finger millet. The emphasis is on advanced research on the major crops, including the model plants maize and rice, as well as on future road maps of genomic research for the less-often considered but equally deserving cereals and millets.

Millets: The Multi-Cereal Paradigm for Food Sustainability

Millets: The Multi-Cereal Paradigm for Food Sustainability PDF Author: Monika Thakur
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031642376
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description


Pearl Millet

Pearl Millet PDF Author: Ishwar S. Khairwal
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description


Millets and Pseudo Cereals

Millets and Pseudo Cereals PDF Author: Mohar Singh
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
ISBN: 0128204052
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Millets and Pseudo Cereals is the first comprehensive resource to focus on the potential crop improvements through genetic enhancements. The choice of food crop for a region is primarily determined by the conditions of climate and soil. Once labelled as orphan crops, millets and pseudo-cereals are now known as miracle grains due to their adaptation to harsh conditions and high nutritional quality. Small millets and pseudo-cereals are now seen to occupy special niches through their ability to adapt to challenging conditions. These crops have a comparative advantage in marginal lands where they withstand stress conditions and contribute to sustainable production. They also contribute to the diversity-richness and production stability of agro-ecosystems. Millets include sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, little millet and kodo millet while the other group which are not cereals but consumed as cereals and generally referred as pseudo-cereals comprises of grain amaranths, buckwheat and chenopods. Millets and Pseudo Cereals presents current information on the genetic architecture of important economic traits and the genomic resources for gene enabled breeding. This compilation contains information on the global status, available germplasm resources, nutritional value, breeding advancements, genomics applications and sustainability of agriculture through millets and pseudo-cereals cultivation. This book is a valuable resource for those conducting research and exploring new areas for advancing crop genetic understanding. - Explores the current challenges of pseudo-cereal production and how that can be overcome by developing genetic and breeding resources using appropriate germplasm - Provides holistic information on millets and pseudo-cereals - Features global perspectives from an international contributing team of authors

Plant Breeding Reviews

Plant Breeding Reviews PDF Author: J. Janick
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468488961
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Plant breeding, the domestication and systematic improvement of crop species, is the basis of past and present agriculture. Our so called primitive progenitors selected practically all our present-day crop plants, and the improvement wrought through millenia of selection has so changed some of them that in many cases their links to the past have been obliterated. There is no doubt that this ranks among the greatest of human achievements. Although plant breeding has been a continuous empirical activity for as long as humans have forsaken the vagaries and thrill of hunting for the security and toil of agriculture, genetic crop improvement is now very much of a twentieth-century discipline. Its scientific underpinnings date to the beginning of this century with the discovery of Gregor Mendel's classic 1865 paper on the inheritance of seven characters in the garden pea. If any science can be traced to single event, the best example is surely found in the conception of modern genetics that appears in this single creative work. The relationship of plant breeding progress to advances in genetics has become closely entwined. Mendel himself was concerned with crop improvement and worked on schemes for apple and pear breeding. Plant breeding also has claims on other scientific and agricultural disci plines-botany, plant pathology, biochemistry, statistics, taxonomy, entomology, and cytology, to name a few-and has also impinged on our social, ethical, economic, and political consciousness.

Sorghum and Millets Diseases

Sorghum and Millets Diseases PDF Author: John F. Leslie
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470384700
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
This work is based on the Mexico 2000 meeting under the auspices of ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics) and INTSORMIL (International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program). Sorghum and millet are very important agronomic crops in many parts of the world, specifically in the semi-arid regions in warm areas. The crops are of great significance in supplying food and feed in the developing areas of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.