April 2026 - Collab - lists.millets2023.space

Fwd: Chiwapa Millet
by Don Osborn 27 Apr '26

27 Apr '26

Forwarding this item by our NAMA colleague and agronomist, Gary Wietgrefe. One quick note - this millet is also known as Indian barnyard millet. Together with Japanese, or Japanese barnyard, millet and their respective precursor wild relatives (that I understand are sometimes also cultivated), this “barnyard” group is a complex and closely related set of species. DO, EL, MI, US NAMA ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gary Wietgrefe <gww374(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 4:25 PM Subject: Chiwapa Millet To: Don Osborn <don(a)milletsalliance.org>, Joni Kindwall-Moore < info(a)milletsalliance.org> For agronomic purposes, I did a bit of searching for millets best for wet soils. I have not worked with Chiwapa millet but it is *Echinochloa frumentacea *(better known as billion dollar grass). I have no experience with it. Apparently, it is a long season (120 day) millet used across the South in wet ground to attract gamebirds--primarily ducks. It appears Chiwapa millet (*Echinochloa frumentacea*) does better (standability and sustainability) in wet and saturated soils than Japanese millet (*Echinochloa esculenta*). *Seed is available* across the South. So if some culinary users want to try it, they should order seed before it is treated for planting. Likely, it would need to be conditioned, probably removing the seed coat, before turning it into flour. Here are a few links including suppliers and research: *Chiwapa*: http://www.chiwapa.com/aac_planting.php *Handcock Seed*: https://hancockseed.com/products/chiwapa-millet-seed?_pos=1&_psq=chiwapa&_s… *Specialty Seed*: https://specialtyseed.com/about-chiwapa-millet/ *Research*: *No-Till Farmer*: ttps:// www.no-tillfarmer.com/ext/resources/files/2021/NRCS%20Trials/flpmcsr13551.p… *USDA-NRCS*: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/gapmcsr13555.pdf We should probably use Chiwapa millet as a reference name for *Echinochloa frumentacea* and keep it separate from Japanese millet *Echinochloa esculenta*. In India Chiwapa millet is apparently called Indian Barnyard millet or Sama Rice, but I don't think we should use either of those names in North America. On our farm (northcentral South Dakota) we used foxtail millets because our wheat, oats and barley fields were planted in April and many sloughs would not dry out until June. When they did, a thin crust would form and the bare-ground sloughs which allowed us to run a tractor and grain drill across and shallow (<1 in.) plant foxtail millet in sloughs mostly an acre or less. Our intent was only to harvest forage-not seed. In the fall (September) we would cut it for hay. However, I would only recommend foxtail in Michigan for forage on dry soils only when saturated soils dry out and likely would not flood again. Followup flooding will kill the foxtail millet. Saturated or flooded soils may be best to plant Chiwapa millet for forage and wildlife.....Gary Wietgrefe -- Author, Gary W. Wietgrefe, https://www.RelatingtoAncients.com/ Enjoy Wietgrefe's (pronounced "wit' grif") dozen books, patents, and international research on millets, agronomy, cultural changes, travel adventure, poetry, and history.

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Millets vs. the water crisis. NAMA Millets Webinar, 14 Apr. 2026
by Don Osborn 17 Apr '26

17 Apr '26

Long-term aquifer depletion, lower than normal snowpack levels, and effects of high temperatures raise concerns about water availability for cereal crops in the Plains and other drier parts of North America. What role can millets play in assuring sustainable food production and farm survival in 2026 and beyond? What are some of the issues that stand in the way of more planting of these resilient small grains? Or of developing consumer demand for them? These are some of the questions discussed by NAMA board members Gary Wietgrefe, Joni Kindwall-Moore, and Don Osborn in this latest of the NAMA Millets Webinars (14 Apr. 2026). Also considered was the potential for millets in other regions of the continent - millets are diverse crops with various potential in diverse agro-climatic zones. https://youtu.be/seuxQbVsc68 Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Pinterest boards on millets & products made with them
by Don Osborn 12 Apr '26

12 Apr '26

About a decade ago, I started "parking" some photos of packaged millets products on a personal Pinterest site, beginning with a board titled "Millets, Plural." I organized it in a way that illustrated the multiple different grains that we referred to with the name "millet.Later, I added other related boards, while intermittently adding more "pins" to each. Since I haven't mentioned this effort in a while, it seemed like a good moment to bring it back to your attention. The relevant boards and sections are listed below. (This is not to promote Pinterest, but the sections seem to display better if one is subscribed, which is free.) Millets, Plural https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-plural/ * Pearl millet / Bajri * Foxtail millet / Xiaomi * Proso millet / Proso * Finger millet / Ragi * Kodo millet * Barnyard millet [both species] * Little millet * Browntop millet * Millets, side-by-side * Millets, combined in products * Uncertain * "Millet," singular, in lists of grains Fonio & teff: Africa's tiniest millets https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/fonio-teff-africas-tiniest-millets/ * Fonio / Acha ["acha" is a term is commonly used in eastern West Africa] * Fonio brewing & beers * Teff * Teff hay & pellets Andropogon millets: Sorghum, adlay & TOM https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/andropogon-millets-sorghum-adlay-tom/ * Sorghum * Sorghum syrup * Adlay / Job's tears * Taiwan oil millet [TOM] Millets in charts & diagrams https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-in-charts-diagrams/ * Characteristics * Food processing * Taxonomies * Taxonomies with "pseudo-millets" * The "millets triangle" Any observations, suggestions, or questions are welcome. In a tangentially related item, we are considering developing a guide or meta-guide to images for educational and journalistic purposes - we are still seeing photos of one kind of millet in articles about one or more other types, which only confuses people more. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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More on proso millet in late Bronze Age Europe
by Don Osborn 09 Apr '26

09 Apr '26

Here's yet another research item mentioning proso or broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in the Bronze Age. First, an article about the research article: "Rare Remains Provide Insights Into Bronze Age Burials, Diet, and Society," by R.J. Mackenzie, Discover, Mar 5, 2026 https://www.discovermagazine.com/rare-remains-provide-insights-into-bronze-… Through analysis of "ancient DNA molecules, strontium and oxygen isotopes, and information from buried skeletons" from 36 late Bronze Age burial sites in central Germany, the research shed light on ancient dietary patterns. Among those, people began eating broomcorn millet - "a recent arrival from China" - in response to economic or environmental change. This research was in a different area of central Europe than that reported in an article I posted about in January./1 (The photo accompanying the article looks like sorghum and not proso/broomcorn millet.) The research article & its abstract Orfanou, E., Ghalichi, A., Rohrlach, A.B. et al. "Reconstruction of the lifeways of Central European Late Bronze Age communities using ancient DNA, isotope and osteoarchaeological analyses." Nature Communications 17, 1992 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69895-y /2 Abstract (NB- while this abstract does not mention any millet, the article has numerous references to "millet," contextualized by specification that this is "broomcorn millet" [aka proso]): "The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–800 BCE) of Central Europe is often characterised as a period of increasing mobility, socioeconomic transformation, environmental fluctuations, and expanding cultural networks. However, reconstructing the demographic aspects of these changes has been hindered by cremation being the dominant mortuary practice, limiting biomolecular approaches. Here, we integrate ancient DNA, oxygen and strontium isotope analyses, and osteoarchaeology to examine rare inhumation burials from Kuckenburg and Esperstedt in Central Germany (n = 36) and compare them to contemporaneous inhumations from the neighbouring regions of South Germany, Bohemia (Czechia) and Southwest/Central Poland (n = 33). Genome-wide data show genetic continuity with preceding Early Bronze Age populations, alongside gradual increases in Early European Farmer-related ancestry, albeit with regionally different timing and extent, reflecting a nuanced pattern of mobility and admixture. Oxygen and strontium isotope data from Central Germany indicate that most individuals match the local isotope signal, including those who were cremated or had a different diet, and with only a few isotopic outliers, suggesting that mobility was present but not extensive. Overall, our findings suggest that the diverse inhumation practices at Kuckenburg and Esperstedt were culturally motivated, reflecting local traditions and ongoing regional interconnectedness rather than the influx of new genetic groups or non-local individuals." Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. "Proso millet improved life in late Bronze Age Europe" (31 Jan 2026) https://lists.millets2023.space/archives/list/collab@lists.millets2023.spac… 2. The complete list of authors: Eleftheria Orfanou, Ayshin Ghalichi, Adam B. Rohrlach, Enrico Paust, Aida Andrades Valtueña, Michal Ernée, Mirosław Furmanek, Agata Hałuszko, Taylor Hermes, Marie Himmel, Jana Ilgner, Johannes Krause, Mario Küßner, Thiseas Christos Lamnidis, Mary Lucas, Drahomíra Adámková Malyková, Harald Meller, Gunnar U. Neumann, Luka Papac, Sandra Penske, Maike Salinger, Sarah A. Schrader, Torsten Schunke, Lena Semerau, Lubor Smejtek, Luca Traverso, Barbara Zach, Robert Spengler, Philipp W. Stockhammer, Joachim Wahl, Christophe Snoeck, Peter Ettel, Florian N. Schneider, Patrick Roberts & Wolfgang Haak

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AI for identifying & distinguishing among millets (2 articles)
by Don Osborn 05 Apr '26

05 Apr '26

While I like to think that I've gotten pretty good at distinguishing among certain millets (and similar sized seeds), there are cases where I'm not so sure or have to look very closely. Sometimes this is at home, where I once almost mistook a jar of little millet for one of amaranth. From a distance, proso and foxtail millets are fairly obvious, but a jar with couscous (not even grain, of course) actually resembles the latter - until you get close. I've recently been experimenting with barnyard millet (likely Indian barnyard, imported from India) and browntop millet side-by-side in jars, they look quite similar. I'll return to this particular comparison another time, but the point is that reliably identifying small millets - out of the hull as I have them, or even in the hulls, can be a challenge even on an individual level. How much more complicated might this be if one had volumes of different millets in a storage or processing facility where they have to be maintained separately So it is of interest to note two recent articles discussing techniques for using AI / deep learning to automatically identify millet grains as well as plants: ----- Ravichandran, M., K. Jagan Mohan, and S. Sivasankaran, "A Comprehensive Review on Various Deep Learning Techniques for Identification and Classification of Millets," Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Secure Data Analytics (ICAISDA 2025), Atlantis Press, 2026. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-616-6_38 Abstract "Millets, including pearl, finger, foxtail, proso, kodo, and little millet, are small-grained cereals known for their climate resilience. These crops require enhanced digital tools for species and cultivar recognition, disease detection, and origin and quality assessment. ML techniques based on neural networks, such as CNNs or combined models, have helped in millet classification from diverse data sources, including leaf and seed images, hyperspectral scans, and field-level imagery. This review elaborates on findings made between 2020 and 2025 while contrasting model families, datasets, and reported metrics across the modalities, pointing out key challenges such as diversity in datasets, environmental variability, explainability, and edge deployment." ------ Baisakh, B., P.K. Sethy, R. Gupta, et al, "A hybrid machine vision and handcrafted features fusion based approach for fine-grained millet classification," Scientific Repports 16, 2578 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-32311-4 Abstract: "Millets are increasingly recognized as climate-resilient, nutrient-rich grains essential for food and nutritional security. However, the limited availability of annotated datasets and the visual similarities among millet varieties such as Barnyard Millet, Little Millet, and Proso Millet pose significant challenges in their accurate identification and classification. To address these issues, this study proposes two novel hybrid frameworks that leverage both handcrafted and deep learning paradigms. A key component shared by both frameworks is the incorporation of a custom-designed handcrafted feature extraction process. The first framework introduces a Stacked Ensemble Machine Learning approach, that integrates handcrafted techniques and machine learning classifiers as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers using a multinomial logistic regression meta-learner. The second framework adopts a bidirectional deep learning architecture; wherein handcrafted feature vectors are fused with the pretrained VGG19 model to achieve effective classification of different millet varieties. The stacked ensemble hybrid model achieved the 97% classification accuracy where as the second model achieved the highest accuracy of 96.7%, an F1-score of 0.967, and a ROC-AUC of 0.995, while maintaining excellent tradeoff between training and inference times." Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Helping Next Step Produce recovery
by Don Osborn 05 Apr '26

05 Apr '26

Last year I mentioned having been in touch with a grower in southern Maryland who was growing and processing grain pearl millet as well as a number of other crops. This was Heinz Thomet of Next Step Produce https://nextstepproduce.com I just checked out their site and learned that a fire last October destroyed their barn, stores, and equipment. If you'd like to learn more and how you can help, please see https://nextstepproduce.com/about/ . This is a small operation, characterized on their website as a "small family farm." However they have had a wider impact than their size might lead one to expect, including supplying pearl millet to a popular bakery in Washington, DC, and to a noted research project on palatability of breads made with that grain, as well as playing a role in the local food movement in their region. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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