So far this month, we've discussed pearl millet in the US and Canada. This crop also appears to be becoming more important in Mexico. Here are some English language and Spanish language sources - a deeper dive would involve more Spanish materials of course. There is a particular attention here, like north of its border, to forage uses of this crop. Pearl millet's advantages are seen as: high nutritional content for livestock, efficient water use, adaptation to high temperatures, tolerance to salinity, and capacity for production in multiple cuts. It is also recognized as a multipurpose crop, including for grain. 1. The most recent I have is from early last year, and gives a good overview (altho it gets confused in the second mention of the origin of pearl millet late in the article): "Sustainable Pearl Millet Farming Could Combat Drought," Mexico Business News, 01/30/2024 https://mexicobusiness.news/agribusiness/news/sustainable-pearl-millet-farmi... The article focuses on forage uses, and mentions research on that, as well as implications for the food system. 2. An official blog of the Mexican National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP) has some similar and some complementary information to the above: "Mijo perla, una opción para forraje: Con tolerancia a la sequía y con un alto rendimiento de forraje," Gobierno de México, INIFAP, 2023-02-09 https://www.gob.mx/inifap/articulos/mijo-perla-una-opcion-para-forraje
From nos. 1 & 2, we can note that regions in which research is ongoing include the Central Plateau, San Luis Potosi, and the Huasteca plains.
Also, the Mexican (governmental) and international agencies involved in research include: * Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER) = Secretariat for Agriculture and Rural Development * Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) * CIMMYT * ICRISAT (as seed source) 3. This one came up in English as "Forage production of pearl millet and maize at the mexican potosinan highland," but the actual article, accessible free online, is in Spanish. The English abstract is at: https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?pid=S0187-73802018000400477&script=sci_... Original article citation: Velázquez-Martínez Mauricio, Mendoza-Guzmán Samuel, Hernández-Guzmán Filogonio J., Landa-Salgado Patricia, Nieto-Aquino Rafael, Mata-Espinosa Miguel A.. Producción forrajera de mijo perla y maíz en el altiplano potosino de México. Rev. fitotec. mex [revista en la Internet]. 2018 Dic [citado 2025 Abr 26] ; 41( 4 ): 477-482. Disponible en: http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0187-73802018000.... Epub 30-Sep-2020. https://doi.org/10.35196/rfm.2018.4.477-482 Research was conducted during 2013 in Charcas and Matehuala, in the state of San Luis Potosi. Google translate of the final paragraph in article: "This study highlights that pearl millet is a good alternative forage crop in Mexico's semi-arid rainfed conditions, allowing for an average of 16.5% forage regrowth, and that the outstanding varieties are MDP13 and MF13." 4. An older article in English: Ratikanta Maiti and Humberto González Rodríguez, 2010, "Pearl Millet: Potential Alternative for Grain and Forage for Livestock in Semi-arid Regions of Mexico," International Journal of Bio-resource and Stress Management, 1(1): 45-47 https://ojs.pphouse.org/index.php/IJBSM/article/view/49/32 "Researches undertaken on the introduction and evaluation of some tropical pearl millet germplasms (91) and cultivars (15) revealed that tropical pearl millet could be apotential crop for production of fodder and grains for livestock/poultry in semi-aridnorth-east of Mexico. Crops were well adapted in semi-arid regions of north-east Mexico, and gave high yield of fodder and grain with good nutritional values." Specific locations of research were in Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Zacatecas states. 5. A 2002 overview that includes mention of pearl millet: Williams-Alanís, Héctor, "Sorghum and Millet in Mexico," Chap. 75 (pp. 457-463) in John F. Leslie, ed. Sorghum and Millets Diseases (Iowa State Press, 2002) https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470384923.ch75 There are not a lot of specifics on pearl millet, but some of the brief discussion of forage value of "millet" aligns with findings in articles above. Earliest research on millets in Mexico, according to the article was in 1967. Back in Dec. 2022, I did a summary of this piece on this list at https://lists.millets2023.space/pipermail/collab/2022-December/000117.html (the offer to share further info on the chapter itself is still open). Summary: Pearl millet - and millets generally (aside from sorghum, which is widely grown) - appear to be consistently in the margins of ag & food research in Mexico. Do the recent items above (1&2) reflect a potential increased use of pearl millet for forage in practice? Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance