Barnyard millet

Barnyard millet is an annual grass with thick, upright stems and compact, purplish or greenish panicles. The tiny, round to oval grains are about two millimetres across, and when hulled they look like small pale-white beads, rather like broken rice.

The cooked grain has a mild, slightly sweet, somewhat nutty taste and a soft, fluffy texture, and the plant is a close cultivated relative of the troublesome barnyard grass weed.

It is sold as whole hulled grain, as flour, flakes, or semolina-like grits. In India it is often found in health and fasting food shops.

Two main cultivated species are grouped under the name. Echinochloa frumentacea, the Indian barnyard millet, is believed to have been domesticated in India from the wild weed Echinochloa colona, while Echinochloa esculenta, the Japanese barnyard millet, was domesticated in East Asia from Echinochloa crus-galli.

Both are among the fastest-maturing cereals, which suited upland farmers with short growing seasons. The genus name Echinochloa derives from Greek words meaning hedgehog and grass, referring to the bristly flower spikes.

The English common name echoes the weedy relatives that grow around farmyards and wet fields.

Barnyard millet has been grown for thousands of years in the Himalayan foothills, peninsular India and across East Asia, mostly as a small-farm subsistence crop. In Japan and Korea, its cultivated form was grown as a famine food, ready for harvest in as little as six weeks.

In parts of India, such as Uttarakhand, barnyard millet is a cultural staple known as jhangora, cooked into porridge or kheer. Elsewhere it has long been one of the grains permitted during Hindu fasting days, when ordinary cereals such as wheat and rice are avoided.

As rice and wheat spread under the Green Revolution, millet cultivation declined sharply. Since the 2010s there has been a revival of interest as nutrition scientists and governments promote millets as climate-resilient and nutritious grains, and India's government declared 2018 the National Year of Millets, while the United Nations marked 2023 as the International Year of Millets.

Hulled grains are boiled to make a rice substitute, porridge, khichdi-style dishes, pongal and kheer. Flour is used for rotis, dosa and idli batters, often in combination with other flours, and the flakes make a quick breakfast cereal.

During Indian fasting days, barnyard millet is prepared as a simple pilaf or sweet pudding. In East Asia, the grain has also been fed to birds and livestock, and the straw serves as fodder. Modern food companies also use the flour in gluten-free snacks, noodles, cookies and infant cereals.

Barnyard millet has been reported in analyses to be high in dietary fibre for a small cereal and to contain useful iron and zinc, though values vary by variety and processing. It is naturally gluten-free, which makes it a convenient grain for people avoiding gluten.

Small studies suggest a lower glycaemic response than polished rice, but human trials are limited, so it should be seen as a nutritious wholegrain alternative rather than a treatment.