Habtamu Ashagre / Mamo Feyanbule / Thomas Abraham
Finger millet is widely produced in the cooler, higher-altitude regions of Africa and Asia both as a food crop and as a preferred input for traditional beer. Finger millet responds to a wide range of environmental conditions. The traditional breakfasts ’Chachabsa’ as well as bread injera porridge cake soup for infants, adults and distilled spirits called Tella and Areke are all made from it. Production trends indicated that millet yields are usually much lower than yields of other cereals (which are grown under more favorable conditions). Millet accounts for 1.5 percent of global cereal production despite covering around 5 % of the world’s cereal land. Finger millet production is concentrated in Eastern and Southern Africa, where the leading producers are Uganda and Tanzania. Very limited quantities of millet are produced in the developed countries, primarily for a high-value specialty market as bird seed.
