A virtual tour of diverse millets from around the world for food systems

20 January 2023. A virtual tour of diverse millets from around the world for food systems and other benefits. 

This is an introductory tour that highlights the fascinating diversity of millets from around the world, including their botanical characteristics, role in food systems today, and future prospects. 

There are many different types of millets, such as pearl millet and finger millet from Africa, and proso millet, foxtail millet, Japanese millet, and browntop millet from Asia. 

All were domesticated as human food crops but over the years have found many additional uses, including for livestock, birdseed, and conservation plantings. Collectively, millets provide a group of relatively nutritious grains that can be grown in tough conditions and add biodiversity to farming systems. 

Speaker 1: Dr. Rob Myers 

Rob Myers is Director of the MU Center for Regenerative Agriculture and an adjunct faculty member with the Plant Science and Technology Division. He also serves as Regional Director of Extension Programs for the USDA-NIFA North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. His professional expertise encompasses sustainable and regenerative agriculture, soil health, conservation and cropping system diversification. He has conducted research, education and extension programs with many different crops including several millet species. His Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in agronomy are from University of Minnesota. 

Speaker 2: Dr. David Brenner 

David Brenner is the Millet Curator at a gene bank, the USDA’s North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, Iowa, and David is an Iowa State University employee. David is responsible for the United States Department of Agriculture’s national collections of barnyard millet, foxtail millet and the Panicum millets, in addition to a diverse collection of other non-millet crops. David and his crew grow new fresh seed stocks for genetic conservation and document the collection on the publicly accessible Search GRIN Global website. Seeds from the collection are distributed to researchers world-wide and free of charge. These seed are a resource for innovation, economic development and are also valued as part of our bio-cultural heritage. David adds value to the millet collection by expanding the representation of crop wild relatives of foxtail and barnyard millets, and growing field rows of millets for observation.