Ragi(Finger Millet) - Eleusine coracana
Eleusine coracana, including African finger millet and caracan millet (koracan), (Common names: Bengali, Nepali: Marwa, Marthi, Gujarati: Nachani, Bavto, Hindi: ragi, mandika) is an annual plant widely grown as a cereal in the arid areas of Africa and Asia. E. coracana is native to the Ethiopian Highlands. It is very adaptable to higher elevations and is grown in the Himalaya up to 2,300 metres in elevation.
Ragi Image Gallery
Cultivation
Eleusine coracana is often intercropped with legumes such as peanuts (Arachis hypogea), cowpeas (Vigna sinensis), and pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan), or other plants such as Niger seeds (Guizotia abyssinica). Although statistics on individual millet species are confused, and are sometimes combined with sorghum, it is estimated that finger millet is grown on approximately 38,000 km2. India is a major cultivator of finger millet with a total cultivated area of 15870 km2. The state of Karnataka is the leading producer of finger millet, known as Ragi in the region, accounting for 58% of India's Ragi production.
Nutrition
Finger millet is especially valuable as it contains the amino acid methionine, which is lacking in the diets of hundreds of millions of the poor who live on starchy staples such as cassava, plantain, polished rice, or maize meal. Finger millet can be ground and cooked into cakes, puddings or porridge. The grain is made into a fermented drink (or beer) in Nepal and in many parts of Africa. The straw from finger millet is used as animal fodder.