North American Millets Alliance (NAMA) is a social benefit (non-profit) initiative dedicated to promoting millets as resilient crops and nutritious foods in the US and neighboring countries. It was founded in January 2022 with an initial focus on the UN-declared International Year of Millets (2023).
The term “millet” in English applies to well over a dozen cultivated species from different branches of the grass family (which also includes the major cereal grains). Millets have small roundish seeds or grains that differ in size, color, taste, and nutrition profiles. These crops also serve a number of other purposes, such as feed and forage for animals.
The diverse millets were domesticated as crops ages ago, primarily in various locations of Asia and Africa. They remain important in many regions and cultures of Eurasia and Africa, even as many farmers, food processors, and consumers have shifted to wheat, corn, and rice.
However, millets are now receiving more attention worldwide, due to both their adaptation to difficult environmental conditions (such as heat and lack of water), and their qualities as food (high nutritive values, gluten-free, and low glycemic index).
The International Year of Millets (IYM2023) was proposed by India and other countries, with support of the UN FAO, and adopted by a UN General Assembly resolution in March 2021. Its principal object is to support increase of cultivation, marketing, and consumption of millets, especially among smallholder farmers (including women farmers) in what are called “developing countries.”
We saw the global reach of IYM2023 as a great opportunity to increase awareness of and interest in millets in North America, and to focus attention on numerous interrelated factors: food culture, product development, crop research & extension, nutrition education, business development, and product labeling, among others
Notable among NAMA's activities during IYM2023 was our first Millets Webinar Series, produced in collaboration with two units at the Universitiy of Missouri.
Although there is evidence that early Native Americans consumed and grew native species of the genera Setaria and Panicum - and one species of the latter, sometimes called Sonoran millet (P. hirticaule), is still grown on a very small scale in NW, Mexico, discussions of millet cultivation in this region generally begin with species introduced by Europeans.
Foxtail millet (Setaria italica). proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) were brought to what is now the US in the 18th century. In the late 1800s, there was a boom in foxtail cultivation in the US, and at about the same time, proso was introduced in the Great Plains, where it has become a significant crop.Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was introduced in the US by the mid-19th century, but likely earlier. Teff (Erograstis tef), introduced some 50 years ago, is the most recent one to become established in US agriculture.
Several millets - including proso (mijo), foxtail (moha, panizo, or mijo cola de zorra), sorghum (sorgo or zahína), and pearl (mijo perla and other names) may have been introduced to Mexico at earlier periods. Foxtail, proso, and sorghum are growm in Canada, with pearl millet recently finding a role in crop rotations.
Currently, most millets cultivated in the region are for animal feed or forage. Proso (generally marketed as “millet” without modifier), sorghum, and teff are also grown for human consumption.
The greatest variety of millets for food in this region currently come via imports, notably from India (many millets and products made with them), China (foxtail and proso, including glutinous varieties), West Africa (fonio), and the Horn of Africa (teff). These respond to what are sometimes termed “niche markets,” and tend to be sold at specialty stores and online.
In general, we expect that North America will grow more millets for various uses, and will consume more millets as food from various sources (including imports, with likely greater domestic production in response to demand).
Among recent and ongoing NAMA projects:
The website contents you are viewing are temporary – a full site is envisioned.
Image credits: The current logo at the head of the page is by Joni Kindwall-Moore. The image in the section on IYM2023 is the official logo of the IYM2023. The divider lines are composed of snippets of images of grains of four millets – proso, finger, foxtail, & pearl, repeated.
For questions, corrections, or feedback: info@milletsalliance.org
If you would like to participate in discussion about millets in North America, please consider joining the “Collab” (for collaboration) list at: https://lists.millets2023.space/mailman3/lists/collab.lists.millets2023.space/
NAMA social media presence: