Thank you, Joanna, for sharing these interesting items. I'll respond by number: 1) The Crop Locator is indeed an interesting tool. Since it covers such a diverse space (the world!) and crops are adaptable, it inevitably also raises questions. One wants to zoom in to areas one knows and ask what's going on here? I'll list some of those, but first, in regard to the question about an information session, yes that sounds interesting. It might be the kind of thing one could organize with FAO and/or ICRISAT. Perhaps one could involve various experts in this technical field (mapping and agro-ecologies). The questions follow: 1a) Even though teff is not in the mix (yet), I'm wondering whether a crop developed in the upland areas of the Horn of Africa would show up in parts of the US (such as Idaho) where it is grown as a grain crop quite successfully, not to mention other parts of the US. (Teff is also said to be grown for forage/had in about half the US.) So I'm wondering if this model might have to be fine-tuned with reference to realities in various locations/ 1b) Similarly with pearl millet. It's grown quite widely, esp. in the southeast US but for forage - that isn't reflected in the map. Going a step further, would the success of this crop for forage indicate good potential for food grade grain pearl millet? 1c) Looking at finger millet, I'm noting high suitability in the few highland areas of West Africa, notably Futa Jalon in Guinea. That's a big fonio region, and the soils there are not good, so I wonder if finger millet would be a realistic alternative. (A local response to the poor soils is a system of household gardens that is quite productive, but not used for grain crops.) 1d) I was blown away by the indications for kodo millet across West Africa. Kodo is actually native to Africa, but apparently a crop only in South Asia. Hard to imagine it entering ag systems focused rice, corn, sorghum, pearl millet, and fonio. (Lost Crops of Africa has a statement to the effect that altho kodo isn't cultivated, rice farmers in Africa might leave volunteer kodo millet stalks in their fields.) That's not to take potshots - I do though, think that questions like this might help fine-tune the model and integrate other factors into analysis using it. Great addition to the knowledgebase, and worth engaging with. 2) Pleased to know about the upcoming Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) International Conference, and your panel there. If I were still in that region, I'd try to stop in. This brings back to mind that Serah Theuri and SNEB had been planning a webinar about millets for SNEB members in May. Need to catch up on where that is, and whether the recording might be made broadly available. 3) I did recently see the Chefs' Manifesto website, and it has quite a nice presentation of recipes and other information. Thanks for sharing the link with the list. All the best DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Fri, Jun 16, 2023 at 8:50 PM Joanna Kane-Potaka < joanna.kanepotaka@outlook.com> wrote:
Dear Don
A few extra pieces of information
1. Did you see this very interesting tool CROP LOCATOR which is applied to millets and has mapped the suitable geographies globally for different types of millets. Please see their very short video at:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mukti-sadhan-basu-ph-d-30769459_indias-millet...
A description they provided:
The CropLocator is an unsupervised machine learning based solution which leverages merged data on weather, climate, soil, and landscape, to identify similar agro-ecological zones. In total over 100 parameters are used to identify similarities and the current version comprises a little shy of 2000 of these AEZs globally. We then cross match based on geocoordinates a carefully curated database of crops with these AEZs to identify potential suitable sites for cultivation. We of course have the ability to identify the criteria driving the “predictions”, although in some cases it is a complex non linear ensemble of factors which leads. Factors such as temperature above ground (daily averages and variances), rain fall, surface solar radiation, top soil organic content, are usually amongst the most common drivers.
*They have agreed to have a session and provide more background if you are interested to join? *
2) We have a session on millets at Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior International Conference in Washington, DC July 20 – 23. Our panel is Dr Serah Theuri*, *Food and Nutrition Program, University of Southern Indiana, Agnes Mwangwela <https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnes-mwangwela-930a2a17/>, Stacia Nordin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacia-nordin/>, and me.
https://www.sneb.org/sneb-2023/
3) I thought these millet recipes have spectacular photos and definitely make you want to try it:
https://sdg2advocacyhub.org/chefs-manifesto/news/magnificent-millets-recipe-...
Regards Joanna
------------------------------ *From:* Collab <collab-bounces@lists.millets2023.space> on behalf of Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> *Sent:* Sunday, June 11, 2023 12:47 PM *To:* Brenner, David (CTR) - REE-ARS <david.brenner@usda.gov> *Cc:* collab@lists.millets2023.space <collab@lists.millets2023.space> *Subject:* Re: [Collab] National Public Radio on millets, June 8, 2023
Thank you, David, I appreciate your sharing this. It's of course another version of the radio segment that aired last month on a more local scale (Kansas CIty, apparently): https://www.kcur.org/2023-05-17/millets-drought-climate-united-nations . Altho shorter, the NPR Morning Edition version captures all the main points. And of course it went out nationally in the US, which is great.
Regarding the content of the segment, I'm particularly curious to know more about the Japanese millet (Echinochloa esculenta) that Linus Rothermich is growing - what are the markets for this grain in North America? I am aware of the plant's use as forage and for wildlife in the US.
TIA for any more info,
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
bcc: Rob Myers
On Fri, Jun 9, 2023 at 1:18 PM Brenner, David (CTR) - REE-ARS < david.brenner@usda.gov> wrote:
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-t...
<https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets> The United Nations declares 2023 the International Year of Millets <https://www.npr.org/2023/06/08/1180964010/the-united-nations-declares-2023-the-international-year-of-millets> Millets, an alternative crop to corn and soybeans, is getting new attention in the U.S. The resilient grain could help U.S. farmers survive climate change. www.npr.org
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