Three items on pearl millet

Three recent items on pearl millet to share, including a special magazine section & two significant edited volumes: 1. "Pearl Millet: The Cereal of the Future?: A New Book and Crop Science Special Section Highlights the Grain," by Tess Joosse, CSA News, 16 Oct. 2024 https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/csan.21408 2. Ramasamy Perumal, P.V. Vara Prasad, c. Tara Satyavathi, Mahalingam Govindaraj, and Abdou Tenkouano (editors), *Pearl Millet: A Resilient Cereal Crop for Food, Nutrition, and Climate Security*, Wiley, 2024 https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Pearl+Millet%3A+A+Resilient+Cereal+Crop+for+Food... Description: "*Pearl millet*, a warm-season, dryland cereal crop, is a staple food for over 90 million people in Africa and Asia. Its nutritional superiority relative to other cereal crops, such as rice, wheat, maize, and sorghum, and its hardiness and adaptability to harsh environments and poor soils make it a potentially life-saving resource for poor populations and/or areas hit by damaging climatic conditions. With climate change Placing an ever-greater strain on global agrifood systems, pearl millet has never been a more important crop in the fight against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. "*Pearl Millet* offers a thorough introduction to this potentially vital grain. Coming on the heels of a 2023 United Nations declaration of the “International Year of Millets,” it is a crucial intervention in an essential humanitarian project. It is the first comprehensive book on the subject to appear in print. "Key Features: * Analysis of a potential lead crop for climate-change-affected areas * Detailed coverage of all pearl millet’s unique features, such as inherent genetic diversity, gluten free applications, and suitability for double cropping * An author team with vast research and crop development experience "*Pearl Millet* is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, certified and practicing professionals, as well as industry and academic researchers." 3. Vilas A. Tonapi, Nepolean Thirunavukkarasu, SK Gupta, Prakash I Gangashetty, and OP Yadav (editors), *Pearl Millet in the 21st Century: Food-Nutrition-Climate resilience-Improved livelihoods*, Springer Nature, Singapore, 2024. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-5890-0 "This book documents the global pearl millet research for achieving the sustainable development goals in the eve of the International Year of Millets in 2023 by FAO. This book offers perspectives on the recent advances in the field of genomics, next-generation breeding approaches, hybrid development, crop production and protection technologies of pearl millets. Pearl millet is the world’s most important millet grown in the hot, semi-arid ecologies of Asia and Africa with versatile end uses. Of all the world’s cereals, pearl millet ranks the sixth most important crop after rice, wheat, maize, barley and sorghum. In the changing climatic condition, it can be pitched as a strategic crop for food and nutritional security owing to its ability to survive in harsh ecologies and the higher micro-nutrients grain content. This book focuses on nutritional importance, climate resilience, seed systems, value-addition and market policies to enhance the genetic gain of pearl millets under marginal and favorable ecologies, and way forward for a food and nutrition secure world. It is a useful reading material for researchers and professionals working on small grains, millets and their cultivation and nutrition related aspects." The two books appear to be projects prompted by the IYM2023, but in any event, they offer a wealth of information about research on pearl millet, and hopefully will boost further work with this crop. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US - +1 202-621-3911) North American Millets Alliance
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Don Osborn