Cereals
- A Hungarian farmer with a local maize landrace. Credit: D. Jarvis/Bioversity
- Cover of Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentus Moench), one of a series of publications on neglected and underutilized species. Other cereals and pseudocereals in this series include, Chenopods (Chenopodium spp.) , Hulled Wheats and Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter].
Over half of the global requirement for proteins and calories are met by just three cereals: maize, wheat and rice. Two CGIAR centres are responsible for the conservation and management of the genetic resources of these three staple crops. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has the mandate for wheat and maize genetic resources. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is responsible for rice genetic resources.
Other cereals, such as rye and barley, are also major cereal crops. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is carrying out research on the conservation and use of barley genetic resources.
Many other cereals, extremely important for local food security, such as fonio in West and central Africa and teff in Ethiopia, remain neglected and underutilized. Also, buckwheat and Andean grains, which are classified as pseudocereals, have a tremendous potential for boosting incomes and improving nutrition.
To find out more scroll down or click on the links below.
Andean grains
Andean grains, 'so called' because in a strict botanical sense they are not true cereal crops and botanists generally use grain to denote the seeds of a true cereal. Andean grains range throughout the Andes from Colombia down to Chile and Argentina at altitudes between 2500 and 4200 metres above sea level. The most important members of this group are quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), ca񩨵a (C. pallidicaule), amaranth (also known as kiwicha, Amaranthus caudatus) and chocho (also known as tarwi, Lupinus mutabilis). Andean people use these grains in a wide array of sweet and savoury dishes and in many different forms: whole grains, flour, flakes and popped. In addition to the grain, the leaves too are often eaten as vegetables.
Andean grains offer exceptional nutritional value. They are high in protein and are an important source of essential amino acids, especially the lysine and threonine that are often low in diets based on maize. Andean grains are also easily digestible and, with their valuable amino acid balance, are often recommended for babies, children and elderly people. Leaves are high in protein and iron, which is easily assimilated thanks to the high levels of vitamin C also present. This gives them a medicinal use beyond a diverse diet. Ca񩨵a and amaranth leaves are used to treat people suffering from anaemia, especially pregnant women and nursing mothers. They are also prescribed for tiredness and altitude sickness. Ca񩨵a is good for people suffering from amoebic dysentery or typhoid fever, while quinoa is used as a painkiller and anti-inflammatory and to prevent the formation of scars.
Andean grains also tolerate insect pests, diseases, drought, frost and salinity and therefore perform very well in marginal lands. Quinoa and ca񩨵a in particular are reported to be very tolerant of salinity, frost and drought. In Bolivia there are reports of acceptable production in areas with less than 100 mm rainfall per year. Growing Andean grains is thus a limited risk for the farmer in many areas of the higher Andes. A final asset of Andean grains is that they offer a wide range of processing possibilities, not all of them for food. Amaranth flowers contain considerable amounts of betacyanins, natural and non-toxic red pigments that could be useful in the food and cosmetic industries. There is also a local tradition that the ashes of ca񩨵a stems repel insects, spiders and ticks, which offers potentially interesting opportunities for additional diversification.
(Information source: Meeting the Millennium Development Goals with Agricultural Biodiversity)
Publications
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd)
Descriptores para Quinua
Ca񡨵a (Chenopodium pallidicaule Aellen)
Descriptores para Ca񡨵a
Links
The potential of small holder technology in quinoa producing communities of the Southern Bolivian Altiplano
Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species feature article, May 2007
Elsewhere on the site
A simple machine to boost quinoa consumption and improve nutrition
News story and podcast (June 2007)
Adding value to Andean grains
Geneflow 2004
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L)
Barley is a tough cereal. It grows where other grains can't grow; it grows and thrives at arctic latitudes and alpine altitudes and can even be found in saline desert oases. Barley is the fourth most important cereal crop in the world after wheat, maize and rice.
Barley was first domesticated in south-western Asia, in the area called the Fertile Crescent. Now the main barley growing countries in the world are Russia, Canada and Germany. In Tibet, Nepal, Ethiopia and the Andes, farmers cultivate barley on mountain slopes at elevations higher than other cereals can grow. In areas with little irrigation in the dry regions of North Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea and Yemen, barley is often the only suitable cereal. Developing countries account for about 18 percent of global production and 25 percent of the harvested area of barley.
Due to the high proportion of meat in temperate zone diets, barley is nowadays more often used as feed for livestock than human food. Barley's second most important use is in brewing beer; the direct use of barley as human food ranks third.
Among the CGIAR centres, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) has the mandate to undertake work on barley, and more than 100 cultivars have been released in 34 countries worldwide from their breeding programmes using locally adapted types.
(Information source: Global Crop Diversity Trust)
Links
European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources(ECPGR)
Barley Working Group
Barley Germplasm Database (Okayama University Japan)
Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
Publications
Systematic and Ecogeographic Studies on Crop Genepools 7
An Ecogeographical Study of the Genus Hordeum (2nd edition)
Descriptors for Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.)
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.)
Bitter and sweet buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tataricum) are minor crops but important for local communities in Nepal, northern India, Bhutan and China, particularly in the Himalayan foothills. There is also strong interest in buckwheat in Japan and Australia.
Buckwheat is a grain that is not a grain, much favoured because it is hardy, thrifty and very nutritious. In Shouyang County, in the mountains in the eastern part of Shanxi, China, it has proved financially valuable too. Many farmers live below the national poverty line, and crops are a major source of their income. The area suffers from limited rainfall during the growing season, and farmers generally grow a mixture of maize, millet, buckwheat, beans and potatoes. The farmers select their crops with care and have discovered that buckwheat is especially useful in poor soils and with low inputs.
Publications
Buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentus Moench
Descriptors for Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.)
Fonio (Digitaria exilis)
Also known as findo, findi, acha or 'hungry rice', fonio was among the first crops to be domesticated in Africa and remains vital to the food security of millions of African farmers. It is made into porridge and couscous and mixed with other flours to make bread. It is also brewed for beer. The grain, straw and chaff are used for animal fodder and the straw is sometimes chopped and mixed with clay to make bricks.
Elsewhere on the site
Fonio: West Africa's treasure
Annual Report 2001
Publications
Maize (Zea mays L.)
Maize (called corn in the United States, Canada and Australia) is the most widely produced crop in the world. This cereal, which originated in Mexico, is now grown in at least 164 countries around the world with a total production of more than 690 million tonnes in 2005.
Maize was the major staple food in pre-Colombian Americas and in the Caribbean. Today the indigenous people of the Americas are still careful about the selection and maintenance of their varieties, and as maize seeds usually lose viability in about 3-5 years, maintenance of varietal distinctness requires continued diligence.
There were 261 584 accessions of maize held in genebanks around the world at the time FAO published its State of the World Plant Genetic Resources in 1998. The single largest collections are found in India, Russia, the USA and in Mexico. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in Mexico, holds the world's largest collection of maize seed, with over 20 000 seed samples.
(Information source: Global Crop Diversity Trust)
Links
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
European Union Maize Landrace Database
Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje
Publications
Systematic and Ecogeographic Studies on Crop Genepools 3
Races and Populations of Maize in Yugoslavia
Systematic and Ecogeographic Studies on Crop Genepools 2
El Teocintle en Mexico
Maize Genetic Resources in Europe
Maize/Maiz/Maï³ (Zea mays L.)
Milho - Descriptores para o Milho
Elsewhere on the site
Trade and totomoxtle
Geneflow 2005
Millets
Two types of millets are covered by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture: Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana) and Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum)
Finger millet is a hardy crop that is well adapted to arid highland areas in Africa and Asia. Its small and tough grain is easily stored and is a reliable food source in times of drought and crop failure. By providing essential amino acids, finger millet is an important complementary element in diets relying mostly on starchy crops such as cassava, maize and plantain. The grains are ground and used in baking flatbread, preparing porridges and also for brewing beer. The straw is used as animal fodder.
Pearl millet is the most widely grown of the millets. There is no other cereal able to produce such a stable yield under marginal, hot and dry agricultural conditions. The ability of pearl millet to grow in dry and marginal environments clearly makes it a crop with an important role in the future, but the market it serves is marginal and the crop is an 'orphan crop', receiving little attention from commercial breeders. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) genebank in India holds about 21 000 samples, more than half of the pearl millet samples held in genebanks around the world.
There are also other so-called 'minor' millets, such as foxtail millet (Setaria italica), that are traditional crops of the semi-arid regions of Africa and South and South-East Asia. These crops are well adapted to marginal agricultural conditions and are an important source of food and nutritional security for people in marginal areas. Their grains are high in energy and rich in micronutrients, vitamins and essential amino acids, which can be deficient in major cereals such as rice, wheat and maize.
Publications
Echinochloa Millet
Echinochloa Millet Descriptors
Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L.)
Kodo Millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.)
Pearl Millet/Mil Penicillaire [Pennisetum glaucum (L.)]
Elsewhere on the site
Foxtail millet enjoys revival in India
Geneflow 2005 (Special Section)
The magic of millet
(Radio Broadcast 2006)
Oat (Avena sativa)
Oat is one of the traditional cereals of the temperate latitudes, popular because it is both highly nutritious and able to grow in difficult soils and climates. Oats are used as food for both humans and animals. They are very high in energy, in the form of proteins and fats, and are used for cereals, as rolled oats, in the baking of biscuits and pastries and for making flour and oil.
Oat was probably used for medicinal purposes before it became a food crop. Medical research shows that oat fibre helps remove cholesterol and also that the antioxidant compounds unique to oats help to prevent cardiovascular disease.
According to FAO's 1998 State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources, there are more than 220 000 samples of oats held in genebanks around the world. The largest collections are found in the largest producer countries: Canada, USA and Russia.
(Information source: Global Crop Diversity Trust)
Links
European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR)
Avena Working Group
The European Avena Data Base (EADB)
Publications
Descriptors for Oat (Avena spp.)
Rice (Oryza spp.)
Rice is the world's most important staple food. Half of the world's population-3 billion people-consume on average 70 kg of rice per person each year. Rice supplies half of the world with 80 percent of their dietary intake.
The genus Oryza contains about 23 species. Two species have been domesticated: Oryza sativa, native to Asia, and Oryza glaberrima, native to Africa. Oryza sativa has evolved into three separate races, called Indica, Japonica and Javanica. The races are further broken down into varieties of tremendous variation estimated at more than 100 000 distinct types.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines now holds more than 90 000 accessions, collected from 100 countries, of traditional and wild varieties. A major portion of the holdings is stored as duplicate sets in the USA. Other major collections in terms of number of accessions are held in India and China. In total, FAO in 1998 recorded over 420 000 accessions held worldwide.
(Information source: Global Crop Diversity Trust)
Links
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
Oryzabase (Integrated Rice Science Database)
Publications
Descriptors for Rice (Oryza sativa L.)
Elsewhere on the site
New light on the value of old rice
Annual Report 2002
Rye (Secale spp.)
Rye is a hardy grain, more tolerant of frost and drought than is wheat. It is the most winter hardy of all cereals, and is frequently grown under conditions where other cereals fail.
Most rye grown in Europe is used for making bread. Canada uses a limited amount of rye grain for distilling and food uses, and in the US about half the rye is used for these purposes. Rye grain is used to make flour, feed and beer. It can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries, or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats.
Other uses of rye include rye whiskies, most vodkas, medicinal uses, animal bedding and fruit and vegetable mulch.
(Information source: Gramene: A Resource for Comparative Grass Genomics)
Links
Publications
Challenges in Rye Germplasm Conservation
Rye and Triticale (Secale spp.)
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor)
Sorghum is called 'the camel of crops'. It has earned this name because of its ability to grow in arid soils and withstand prolonged droughts. The crop plays a major role in the food security of millions of people in marginal agricultural areas. It occupies 25 percent or more of arable land in Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia and Yemen, and globally it is the fifth largest cereal crop after wheat, rice, maize and barley.
Although the largest bulk producer today is the USA, about 90 percent of the area planted to sorghum lies in developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia where it is grown for subsistence in smallholders' fields.
The crop has multiple uses beyond using the grain as food. A sweet syrup is made from the juice of the stems in the southern United States. The cereal makes excellent brew for beer and other alcoholic beverages. The plant is used as animal fodder after harvest, and the straw is often used for fencing and building material for huts. Roots are used as fuel for cooking. Now sorghum is also grown as an energy crop, producing ethanol from the sweet sorghum variety for use as bio-fuel. Sorghum is also used in the production of wallboard in the housing industry and in biodegradable packaging materials.
One of the CGIAR research centres, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), located in India, serves as a world centre for improving sorghum's grain yield and quality. ICRISAT holds more than 36 000 samples of sorghum types.
(Information source: Global Crop Diversity Trust)
Links
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Publications
Descriptors for Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]
Elsewhere on the site
Can cultural practices endanger crop diversity?
Geneflow 2004 (Special Section)
Teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter)
Teff is an important cereal crop in Ethiopia. Over 1 million hectares of land are planted to teff each year. It is an excellent source of dietary iron, as well as containing good levels of protein and calcium. The grain is primarily used to make injera, a pancake-like bread made from fermented batter.
Outside Ethiopia there is a growing interest in using teff. For example, smallscale commercial production of teff has begun in a few areas of the wheat belts of the USA, Canada and Australia. Teff has been introduced to South Africa and cultivated as a forage crop, and in recent years cultivated as a cereal crop in northern Kenya.
(Information source: see publication below)
Publications
Tef(Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter)
Wheat (Triticum spp.)
Globally wheat is the second most widely produced crop, just recently surpassed by maize. The history of humans and wheat is interwoven from the first cultivation of the crop in the Fertile Crescent, more than 10 000 years ago.
Confusingly, wheat is more than just wheat. The name actually encompasses more than 20 different species and a much larger number of subspecies. Some species are still growing in the wild while others are found only as cultivated crops.
There are more than 800 000 accessions of wheat held in genebanks around the world. The largest collection is held at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. CIMMYT has provided a continuous stream of germplasm to national agricultural research systems, which have dramatically changed wheat production in the developing world.
Many of these species are neglected and underutilized and hold much promise for farmers, especially hulled wheats, einkorn (Triticum monococcum), emmer (T. dicoccum) and spelt (T. spelta).
(Information source: Global Crop Diversity Trust)
Links
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR)
Wheat Working Group
Databases
Komugi (Integrated Wheat Science Database)
Publications
Descriptors for Wheat and Aegilops
Elsewhere on the site
Wild relatives boost zinc levels in wheat
Geneflow 2005 (Special Section)
CIMMYT's genebank helps restore wheat diversity to farmers' fields
Geneflow 2004 (Special Section)
