Lost Crops of Africa Volume I: Grains (1996) / Chapter Skim
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13 Other Cultivated Grains
13 Other Cultivated Grains
Pages 237-250
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From page 237... ...
They grind its soft seeds into a flour, which is used for cakes and fritters. Although this domesticated plant is grown only in this one area of the Guinea highlands, the wild form is spread throughout the Sahelian zone from Senegal to the Horn of Africa as well as in coastal savannas from Ivory Coast to Cameroon.
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From page 238... ...
Brachiaria species, thought to be guinea millet, growing in Fouta Djallon region of Guinea.
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From page 239... ...
, and during the past 2,000 years or so the older form, emmer, became an abandoned waif. Despite its Middle Eastern origin, emmer nonetheless has an ancient African heritage.
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From page 240... ...
This was unknown to my learned friends in French agricultural research. "Today, this relict prehistoric wheat is beginning to find markets as a 'natural health-food,' and it sells at a price rasher satisfying for the stubborn traditional growers who, through generations, had kept it in cultivation, just to satisfy their lasting taste for this porridge." Spelt For the Stone Age inhabitants of what is now south Germany, spelt (Triticum spelled was the main food source.
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From page 241... ...
The researchers concluded that their samples were: "an important genetic reservoir of variability for useful characters such as earliness, short stem, high number of fertile tillers [see picture overpage] , long spikes, dense spikes, high number of seeds per spike, weight of kernels per spike, and protein content." They also noted that most of the emmers exhibited traits suitable for cultivation in the arid areas.
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From page 242... ...
this plant tolerates drought and its grain has a protein content of 18-71 percent.
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From page 243... ...
On the face of it, emmer might also benefit the world's wheatbreeding programs. Already, its genes have conferred on the American wheat crop resistance to rust, a virulent fungal disease that in earlier times periodically devastated the nation's food supply.7 Its other desirable characteristics include early maturity, drought resistance, and a high protein content.
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From page 244... ...
We thresh the dry grain in a small homemade threshing machine or an old combine employed as a stationary thresher. It threshes easily.
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From page 245... ...
And its deficient barley has two full rows, but the lateral spikelets are greatly reduced or are wanting entirely. Although essentially unknown elsewhere, irregular barley'° ranks fourth among Ethiopia's crops, both in quantity produced and area planted.)
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From page 246... ...
Increasingly, biotechnology can deal with genetically complex traits. In sum, technologies such as tissue culture, anther culture, embryo rescue, protoplast fusion, and genetic markers are likely to bring undreamed of breakthroughs that will transform Africa's native grains.
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From page 247... ...
In basic studies, biotechnology is now helping to show how water stress affects the physiological, biochemical, and molecular organization of plants during their various life stages. In future, the new techniques could target the genes that govern rooting depth, water extraction, and root penetration of compacted soil layers.
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From page 248... ...
to obtain resistance to loose smut, a severe fungal disease. In the United States and several other countries they have employed the genes for resistance to the extremely damaging barley yellow dwarf virus, leading to great savings in grain yields.
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From page 249... ...
. Although kodo millet frequently infests rice fields in West Africa, it is tolerated even there.
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