Fonio (Digitaria exilis) is a West African crop. All the commercially available fonio in the US and Canada is imported from that region. The only place in the Americas where fonio is an established crop is the island of Hispaniola, mainly in the Dominican Republic (DR), where it is called "funde." It may also be grown in Haiti. Its presence as a crop in the DR is confirmed, for example, in the PROTA4U database: https://prota.prota4u.org/protav8.asp?g=pe&p=Digitaria+exilis A brief article, altho a bit dated, gives historical background and information on contemporary cultivation and uses: J. Pablo Morales-Payán, J. Richard Ortiz, Julio Cicero, and Francisco Taveras, "Digitaria exilis as a Crop in the Dominican Republic," Supplement to: Trends in New Crops and New Uses. 2002. J. Janick and A. Whipkey (eds.). ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA. * https://www.sodiaf.org.do/publica/Articulos/digitaria%20exilis.pdf * https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237428677_Digitaria_exilis_as_a_Cro... According to this article, fonio was introduced to the then Spanish colony of Santo Domingo early during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It might have been very early in this period, but I have seen no confirmation of late 15th century (which would mean one of Columbus's first voyages), but even if fonio came with the earliest enslaved Africans (apparently from Senegambia and Guinea) in the early 1500s, that would be very interesting to kn. One excerpt from the article about current production: "The plant is cultivated abundantly in the province of San Cristóbal, near [the city of] Santo Domingo. Most growers have about one hectare under production, with dual purpose of grass and grain. It is used as a pasture in marginal areas, were other cultivated grasses do not grow well. A number of phenotypic variants have been observed, and could actually be different genotypes developed by the selection of grain by separate growers over 500 years." The Nairobi-based food trade site, Selina Wamucii, has current information on fonio in DR, including, interestingly, a small level of exports: "Fonio Price in Dominican Republic, August 2026," https://www.selinawamucii.com/insights/prices/dominican-republic/fonio/ "As of August 2026, the fonio price in Dominican Republic available is US$ 0.63 per kg (34.47 DOP), up 136.1% year-on-year. "In 2024, the Dominican Republic exported 3,291 tonnes of fonio valued at US$2,079,596, ranking #18 among 81 global exporters and accounting for 1.3% of world exports. The country is a net exporter, with exports increasing by 234.0% year-on-year. The latest export unit value for fonio is US$0.6319 per kg." It is hard to imagine fonio persisting for centuries on one part of the island of Hispaniola - the DR - and not being present in the other part - Haiti. So indeed, Kew's Plants of the World Online page or Digitaria exilis does show it as present in Haiti as well as DR: https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:398802-1 However, Selina Wamucii shows no commercial production of fonio in Haiti: https://www.selinawamucii.com/insights/prices/haiti/fonio/ My searches for further info on fonio in Haiti turned up nothing useful. So, it seems that fonio is a minor but not insignificant crop in DR, and in one region of that country in particular. But not so much in Haiti, or perhaps even in much of the rest of DR, even after some centuries. In an odd way, this reminds me of my early observation of fonio cultivation and use in the tiny country of Togo: Some localities had fonio and gave it great importance, while others knew very well about it, but never seemed to bother with it. In that part of Africa, at least, fonio's importance was linked to cultural traditions of certain small ethnic groups. Many questions about fonio (funde) in DR aside from the above. For example, how is the difficult process of dehulling handled? Have any of the advances in small scale mechanization of dehulling in West Africa come to DR? Anyway, this seems like a space worth watching as fonio grows in popularity. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance