Research work on Naara (Early) and Zea (Late) Millets in Ghana

 Naara or early millet (Pennistum glaucum, (L), R.Br)  is one of the most indigenous crop, about the fourth most important cereal crop in Ghana, for that matter the three northern regions. it is about the first in northern Ghana. 

Naara is very reliable and used in almost every household, until the introduction of maize. It does well with or without fertilizer unlike maize that without fertilizer, it cannot yield anything. Millet is a drought tolerant crop that does not require much rain to grow. 

In an interview with Mr. Peter Asungre the Pearl millet breeder (PhD student) and staff of the CSIR-SARI at the Manga Station in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region.

 He indicated that, there are two types of millet early maturing (Naara) and late maturing (Zia) varieties. 

Akad-kom Naara  12cm in length drought  variety  olerant at maturity on the field 

Kaanati, Akad-kom, Naad-kohblug and Afribeh-naara and Waapp-naara are the improved early maturing ones.

Afribeh-naara (21cn in length) drought tolerant)

 whiles the late maturing ones include Salma I, Salma III and Langbense. The early maturing varieties take about 70 to 75 days to harvest maturity. 

The late millet Zia (One of the Salima

The traditional variety gives a grain yield of about 0.6 tons per hectare while the improved variety called Afribeh-naara, the least of them all in terms of grain yield, has a potential grain yield of about 1.9 tons per hectare and farmers can get about 1.2 tons per hectare. 

These varieties are high yielding, and either tolerant or resistant to some of the most dangerous diseases such as downy mildew known as crazy heads or Naad-komkoma. 

Naad-komkoma.(downy mildew disease or crazu head)

One can lose an entire crop field to the downy mildew disease. 

Waapp-naara variety

The Waapp-naara variety is tolerant to downy mildew whiles the rest such as (Kaanati, Akad-kom, Naad-kohblug and Afribeh-naara) are tolerant and chances of disease incidence is less than 5 percent.

Naad-kohblug ((panicle length 31cm). The bristtled variety, drought tolerant  and pest resistan

 In the case of the indigenous varieties, downy mildew incidence can be as 40 to 45 percent and when sown late in the season, the whole field could be completely destroyed by the disease. 

The current released varieties are the improved varieties that research has developed from the indigenous landraces. 

The first ever released naara which was introduced in the early 1970s known as Manga naara has been cropped over the years and have been faced with myriad of challenges from disease, pest and drought related problems and many farmers are falling out of its production. 

The objective of this research is to help preserve and adjust to the changing climatic conditions in order to prevent the varieties or landraces going completely extinct as our heritage. 

Throughout the length and breadth of Ghana and many parts of the West African Sub-region, naara or early millet is widely consumed. 

It is used mostly in Ghana for Kooko (porridge), Foroforo (drinks for snacks) Maasa (deep oil-fried cake), Tuo-Zafi (TZ) for the main meal of the north. Naara is a rich nutritious grain crop with comparatively high levels of micronutrients especially Iron (Fe) and Zinc (Zn). 

Until recently these potentials of the grain was not explored. Millet grain is recommended for both pregnant and breastfeeding mothers as well as young females as a source of supply of Fe and Zn in their blood. Fe and Zn helps prevent anemia in children (infants) and pregnant women. 

Currently millet grain is used as infant formulae by multinational companies including Nestle Ghana Limited as a source of Fe and Zn for babies. One of the current focus of the millet breeding programme in CSIR-SARI is to come out with bird resistant material through the introgression of the brittle (spines or hair) trait onto some of the existing varieties that lack the trait. 

The presence of bristles on the panicle (head) of millet heads help to reduce, if not eliminate bird attack on the exposed grain. One of the varieties recently released (Naad-kohblug) is bristled and currently serving this purpose effectively. 

Birds of late have become very distractive pest of millet crop that makes its farming unproductive in the Upper East, West and North Regions of Ghana where it has curved itself a niche due to the climatic conditions associated with the area. 

The second focus of our Research programme is to increase the zinc and iron level of millet grain for enhanced micronutrients of those that use it in their diets. According to a report released by Satyavathl and others in 2015, over 2 billion people the world over suffer from iron and zinc disorders. 

This can cause aneamia and prolonged aneamia can result in permanent brain damage in the affected persons. 

The 2014 Ghana Demographic Health Survey report indicates that 42% of women and 66% of children under five years in Ghana are affected by aneamia due to iron deficiencies. 

To overcome these challenges measures such as food fortification, pharmaceutical, and dietary diversification have been employed in the past but these have their own limitations. 

The current trend is biofortification through breeding and agronomic work. Biofortification entails a breeding process that fixes the desired trait in the crop permanently so that anytime you eat the product you benefit from the fixed trait as well. 

In the case of micro nutrient Bio-fortification the iron and zinc levels are high in the proposed materials. In the light of this some varieties/breeding lines with very high levels of micronutrients such as iron and zinc were received from ICRISAT-Niger as breeding materials to augment the local materials. 

The breeding work to improve the iron and zinc content of the local materials are in its advanced stages and it is hoped that in the next two to three years  new varieties would be released and popularized in the country. 

It would be an opportunity for the government to add it to its flagship programmes of Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and the School Feeding. 

If millet is well incorporated into the diet of the people, it may also go a long way to support government reduce the importation of nutrient supplements for use by Ghana Health Services. Notable among these would be the zinc and iron supplementation to pregnant women and lactating mothers through the use of folic acid. 

The daily iron requirement of women in Ghana can easily be met with daily or regular consumption of millet based diets. Available literature suggest that grain of pearl millet accounts for the largest share of Fe and Zn intake in India and is the cheapest source of micronutrients compared with other cereals. 

There are evidences from other countries, especially India, that when a child is fed on the improve early millet for six months, the Fe and Zn levels required will be aptly adequate as compare to any other baby food. 

The research is currently targeting the yield of the grain, Fe and the Zn content and the prevention of birds from destroying the produce. 

There is no known millet variety the world over that can do well and matures in less than 65 days in Ghana. 

Mr. Peter Asungre indicated however that, the CSIR-SAR, Manga Agriculture Research Station intends to submit millet samples to Ghana Atomic Energy for eradication as part of investigation to see if the maturity periods of the late maturing millet (these are photo-period sensitive) could be reduced to take advantage of climate changes being experienced. 

These late maturing ones, locally called zea, are similar to the early maturing millet (Naara) variety but matures in about 120 days from sowing and flowering only occurs in August/September even if sown in January.  

Mr. Peter Asungre stated that, one of the technologies of CSIR-SARI is that is being pushed is relay cropping which involves cropping two different crops in the same season on the same piece of land. The millet crop fits well in this technology. 

This he said will enable farmers to cultivate early millet and harvest it before planting cowpea or early maturing maize in the same year in order to get enough food for their families and income to take care of their children’s education. 

Government currently has also introduced fertilizer subsidy for farmers but millet is not included thus making its cultivation unattractive. 

Given its nutritional importance and as staple food source in the five region of northern Ghana as well as its role as a climate smart crop, there is the need to improve and preserve the variety from going completely extinct.

Kaanati Naara (Panicle length 27cm)

 Naara at its early stages