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Video of the Agrospectrum webinar on millets in the Americas (2025-8-19)
by Don Osborn 24 Aug '25

24 Aug '25

The video recording of last Tuesday's Agrospectrum webinar entitled "Agri-Americas 2.0 : Powered by Millets" is available on the event webpage at https://agrospectrumindia.com/webinar-milletamerica There was a change in line-up with the addition of Sujala Balaji, founder of Rainfed Foods, and the regretted absence of Prof. Dipak Santra, due to a connection issue (he was on travel in connection with his work). Connection issues also arose with Joni, but these were resolved as we started, and with Gary, which cut short his presentation. Featured speakers, topics & start times: * Gary Wietgrefe - overview of millets (incl. sorghum) as crops (4:02) * Joni Kindwall-Moore - overview of processing and marketing of millets (16:54) * Cícero Beserra de Menezes - overview of sorghum and millets in South America (27:56) * Sujala Balaji - challenges of marketing millet-based products (42:59) * Don Osborn - some context and prospective (shifted from history) (59:59) Suchetana Choudhury of Agrospectrum moderated. Thanks to all for your contributions, and especially to Suchetana and the AgroSpectrum team for making this webinar possible. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance PS- I will post separately about the 7 factors outlined in my presentation

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"Millets" - good overview of history in US; dated info on varieties
by Don Osborn 20 Aug '25

20 Aug '25

I came across an older article that holds up well in its treatment of the history of millets in the US and general descriptions: E. A. Oelke, et al, 1990, "Millets," Alternative Field Crops Manual ( University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service, the University of Minnesota Extension Service and the Center for Alternative Plant and Animal Products) Available at: * https://corn.aae.wisc.edu/Crops/Millets.aspx * https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/millet.html Being already 35 years old, its information on varieties as well as some other technical information would need updating, of course. The article references growing conditions in the upper Midwest. The Alternative Field Crops Manual was compiled - evidently online - in 1989-1992. There are a lot of publications on "alternative crops," as well as on millets in particular. While many are more recent, I find it of interest to note early treatments that (a) hold up well, and (b) have or may have contributed to current understanding. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US - +1 202-621-3911) North American Millets Alliance

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"Millets in Americas: From niche to necessity" - Agro Spectrum India
by Don Osborn 13 Aug '25

13 Aug '25

In connection with the upcoming 8/19 webinar on millets in the Americas, AgroSpectrum has released a really nice background article entitled: "Millets in Americas: From niche to necessity" (13 Aug. 2025) https://agrospectrumindia.com/2025/08/13/millets-in-americas-from-niche-to-… Well worth the read! Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Agrospectrum webinar on millets in the Americas - 19 Aug. 2025
by Don Osborn 13 Aug '25

13 Aug '25

Dear all, We have been working in the background with Suchetana Choudhury of AgroSpectrum on putting together a webinar on millets in the Americas that will take place on Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 11 am EDT (8:30 pm IST). See https://agrospectrumindia.com/webinar-milletamerica Agrospectrum India is a web media initiative of MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications, headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Agrospectrum previously hosted a webinar on the future of millets in Africa, APAC, and the EU last month. (See https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2025-July/000850.html ) The upcoming webinar complements that webinar. While NAMA's focus has been and remains North America, including Mexico, we agreed with AgroSpectrum that it was a good time to bring South America, and more broadly, the entirety of Latin America and the Caribbean more fully into global discussions of millets. We want to thank Ms. Choudhury and her team for work on this, and also Joanna Kane-Potaka, who presented in AgroSpectrum's July webinar, for her ideas and feedback in an early conversation about the potential for a webinar on millets in the Americas. Please save the date and register on the event webpage linked above! Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Fwd: Field Day - Aug 26, 2025 Pearl millet new hybrids - field visit - invitation
by Don Osborn 11 Aug '25

11 Aug '25

Prof. Ramasamy Perumal, a noted researcher on pearl millet in North America, and the Kansas State University Agricultural Center, Hays, KS, will host a field day featuring their pearl millet breeding program in Hays on Tuesday 26 August 2025. Details are below. (RSVP would be to Prof. Perumal.) I don't find a webpage for this event, but it is among the 2025 field days listed at https://www.wkrec.org/events/field_days/ (see under Aug. 26 with mention of "latest research and practices shaping the future of agriculture in Western Kansas") DO, EL, MI, US NAMA ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Ramasamy Perumal <perumal(a)ksu.edu> Date: Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM Subject: Field Day - Aug 26, 2025 Pearl millet new hybrids - field visit - invitation To: ... Dear all, Greetings. I am pleased to inform you that the summer 2025 Field Day is scheduled to be held at the KSU Agricultural Research Center, Hays, Kansas on Tuesday Aug 26, 2025, beginning 9:00am . This full-day event will include field visits in the morning followed by lunch and indoor presentations in the afternoon. As part of our ongoing pearl millet breeding program, we have developed over 200 new grain and forage pearl millet hybrids, which are currently in the field evaluation. Our goal is to position this underutilized, climate resilient dryland cereal as a viable alternative crop within the central great plains (CGP) cropping and livestock system. Promising grain and forage hybrids will be promoted for future release in collaboration with interested seed companies. We invite you to join us for a morning tour of our potential pearl millet parents and hybrids in the field followed by an afternoon indoor session to discuss collaborative opportunities to advance pearl millet hybrids in the CGP region. Please RSVP to confirm your availability and participation. Also, feel free to share this invitation with other interested growers, researchers and stakeholders. We look forward to your participation and collaborative support. Sincerely, Ram Ramasamy Perumal Professor - Sorghum and Millet Breeding Kansas State University, Agricultural Research Center, 1232 240th Avenue, Hays, KS 67601, USA Phone: 785-625-3425 x 216 https://www.hays.k-state.edu/programs/sorghum/index.html https://www.hays.k-state.edu/programs/millet/index.html

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Japanese millets encyclopedia project needs sources
by Don Osborn 25 Jul '25

25 Jul '25

Passing on this from Makiko Taguchi of FAO (you may recall her prominent role in the International Year of Millets). This request was sent out on FAO's now seldom-used "Millets" email list. Note the August 5 deadline. DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Fri, Jul 25, 2025 at 2:12 PM Makiko Taguchi <Makiko.Taguchi(a)fao.org> wrote: > Dear colleagues, > > > > A group in Japan is working on a millets encyclopedia to be published next > year, and are looking for a good list of references on millets from around > the world. I would highly appreciate it if you could share the one > book/article on millets that provides a good overview of millets > production/value chain from your countries. > > > > You don’t need to share the actual document, but if you could send me the > title, author, year, etc as you would list in a reference, and if you do > have a link to access it online (if available), that would be great. Please > share them by 5 August. > > > > Thank you! > > > > *Makiko Taguchi* > > Agricultural Officer (cereal cropping systems) > > Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) > <http://www.fao.org/agriculture/plant-production-and-protection/en/#_blank> > > Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) > > Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy > > Email: makiko.taguchi(a)fao.org > > Web: www.fao.org > > > > > >

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Two items on fonio
by Don Osborn 25 Jul '25

25 Jul '25

Fonio is our "millet of the month" in July. Here are a couple of items on this tiny grain: "Everything You Need to Know About Fonio with JJ Johnson | Food Network https://youtu.be/VWgTdguxcd0?si=yJMkxg9XKd2VcZA3 This video is very short but packs two ways of cooking fonio into 3 minutes in a listenable and understandable format. (Might be a template for other millets as well?) "Reclaiming The Giant Among African Grains: The Rise Of Fonio," by Tiana Cline, Forbes Africa, 4 Nov. 2024 https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2024/11/04/reclaiming-the-giant-among-gr… A good overview which includes discussion of the background of fonio, and current efforts to work with farmers growing it, as well as current marketing efforts. It includes quotes from Chef Pierre Thiam (author & co-founder of Yolélé ) and Zoë Karl-Waithaka (managing dir. at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)), and cites the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa - FARA. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Millets in Guyana - update & additional info
by Don Osborn 20 Jul '25

20 Jul '25

>From time to time I post on millets in other countries, near and far. Here's an update on a mention of Guyana, with reference also to Haiti. Back in mid 2023, I shared a link to an item about an India- Guyana partnership to bring millets to the latter. See link and comments under #5 at https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2023-May/000164.html . Here's an update with additional info and comments. 1. A short video from the Guyana Dept. of Public Information in Jan. 2024 discusses 1300 acres under millets. No specific millets are discussed, but there are images of pearl millet and proso millet. The seed bags do not as far as I could ascertain (using Google image translate) say anything about the types of millet. See https://youtu.be/A7ABwxzOmq0 2. A 2024 news release by the Guyana Ministry of Agriculture entitled "Guyana surpasses target for millet cultivation– Min. Mustapha" indicates that these 1300 acres are at the Tacama Mega Farm along the Berbice River in Guyana's Region 10. See https://agriculture.gov.gy/2024/01/11/guyana-surpasses-target-for-millet-cu… 3. A 17 June 2024 article in Selina Wamucii News by Timothy Wahome entitled "Guyana’s millet production reaches 100% self-sufficiency" reports a successful harvest, and relates plans to expand cultivation in Guyana's regions 5, 9, and 10. See https://www.selinawamucii.com/news/2024/06/17/guyanas-millet-production-rea… 4. A 7 July 2025 article in the Guyana Times entitled "Successful Region 9 millet trial leads to expanded cultivation plan" discusses production of finger millet and barnyard millet. See https://guyanatimesgy.com/successful-region-9-millet-trial-leads-to-expande… 5. A 16 June 2024 commentary in the Guyana Chronicle entitled "Consumer Concerns, with Pat Dial: Guyana Enters the Millet World" puts the introduction of millets into the context of Guyana's recent agriculture policy. It also brings up the potential of "millet" in Haiti, and in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as a whole. See https://guyanachronicle.com/2024/06/16/guyana-enters-the-millet-world/ NB- millets are not unknown in Haiti, however - see https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2023-October/000335.html ) Geographical note: Guyana's region 5 is coastal northeast; region 10 is just to its south. Region 9 is in the interior southwest of the country. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Guyana Summary and comments: >From the above, at least 4 millets have recently been tried in Guyana: pearl; proso; finger; and barnyard. The imprecision of most of the articles limits our ability to understand which millets are being planted, where, and with what results. The main destination of grain millets appears to be as livestock feed. These recent articles seem to imply that cultivation of millets began with the sending of seeds of an unidentified selection of millets to Guyana in 2023. However the history may be a bit more complicated: * Jagannath V. Patil, Millets and Sorghum: Biology and Genetic Improvement (2017) p. 187 indicates that the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute of Guyana had one accession of "barnyard millet" See: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Millets_and_Sorghum/bDy7DQAAQBAJ?hl=en… * The "Checklist of the Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana)" 2nd ed., 1997, https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers20-10/0100… has: ** proso millet ("Panicum miliaceum L. [GU FG] [cultivated; naturalized?]") ** sorghum ("Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench [GU SU FG] [cultivated, sparingly naturalized]") ** kodo millet ("Paspalum scrobiculatum L. [SU FG] [cultivated; naturalized?]") ** foxtail millet ("Setaria italica (L.) P. Seauv. [FG] [naturalized?]") So, it may be that there was some cultivation of some millets before the project initiated in 2023 with seed from India. However, the policy commitment and scale of activity that the latter represents is a significant change. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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"Popularizing Millets" webinar by AgroSpectrum (21 July 2025)
by Don Osborn 18 Jul '25

18 Jul '25

This Monday, July 21, AgroSpectrum will host a webinar entitled "Popularizing Millets: The Next Chapter in Global Grain Innovation." The time is 4:00 pm IST / 6:30 am EDT. For more information and to register, see: https://agrospectrumindia.com/webinar-millet360 This event has a regional focus on Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the EU, but may be of interest to any interested in popularizing millets in other regions, such as North America. A background paper, "Grainstorm: Why millets are reshaping resilience strategies," may also be of interest, even if you can't attend (note the mention of North America as the "fastest growing regional market"): https://agrospectrumindia.com/2025/07/17/grainstorm-why-millets-are-reshapi… Thanks to Suchetana Choudhury Goswami, Deputy Executive Director of AgroSpectrum, and moderator of the upcoming webinar, for sharing links. Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US - +1 202-621-3911)North American Millets Alliance

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List check. Please disregard
by MailmanLists 17 Jul '25

17 Jul '25

List check. 22:12 UTC Please disregard this test message.

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