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All varieties combined, millet represents only 3% of grain trade in the world. In Africa, the cereal is less and less popular among farmers when it could be, according to the United Nations, the ideal solution for States seeking to ensure their food self-sufficiency.
Whatever its name, which varies depending on the country and continent – Guinea millet, fonio, sorghum, teff, brown millet or foxtail millet – millet is considered the cereal of the poor, the one that is cooked in porridge. for children or which are consumed in the form of paste, couscous or even a drink associated with curdled milk in the Sahelian zones.
Rustic, it requires few inputs to grow, resists very well to lack of water and is particularly nutritious. For the United Nations, the plant therefore has all the necessary assets to help States to be less dependent on grain imports. Hence the decision to make 2023 the year of the millet. But intensifying production on the African continent is a real challenge and one year will probably not be enough!
The formidable competition of maize
The place of millet is declining on the African continent, explains an expert from the N’kalo agricultural information service, particularly in cotton-growing areas. Disaffection for millet can be seen in particular where the use of fertilizers is growing, because the addition of inputs only marginally modifies its profitability. It is much easier to intensify a crop such as maize, a crop which also offers other commercial outlets internationally, particularly in livestock feed.
On the price side, millet has followed the trend of other cereals with increases since 2021 up to 400 FCFA per kilo in wholesale prices observed in urban areas. A price that could perhaps encourage farmers to produce more millet and thus stem the observed decline. Especially since consumption remains high, even at a high price. It is said in the jargon that it is rigid: those who love millet find it hard to give it up.
Millet is one of the commodities for which strategic reserves have been set up by ECOWAS, along with sorghum, maize and rice. With stocks positioned in Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
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