
Finger millet is virtually unknown in US agriculture, but two researchers at Mississippi State University - Mohan K Bista and Raju Bheemanahalli Rangappa - consider it to be "a potential game-changer for an uncertain future." Their article in CSA News (Oct. 2024, pp. 52-56, https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csan.21404 ) discusses the agronomy of finger millet, the nutritional qualities of the grain (including a high calcium content), and its potential as a new crop in the US. The article does not get into culinary qualities or uses. Mr. Bista, the lead author and a PhD student in Plant and Soil Sciences at Mississippi State will be presenting on finger millet's morpho-physiological resilience to drought stress at the 2024 ASA CSSA SSSA International Meeting in in San Antonio, TX (which starts tomorrow!), in the C02 Crop Physiology and Metabolism Division on Nov 12 from 2:50 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. The conference website is https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2024am/meetingapp.cgi/Home/0 (there appears to be a virtual component to this conference, but it's not clear to me if this presentation would be accessible in that mode). Thanks to Gary Wietgrefe for the pointer to this article. The info on the presentation was seen on LinkedIn. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance