Finger millet blast management in East Africa Creating opportunities for improving production and utilization of finger millet

Uganda is dominated by agriculture with over 80 percent of the 24.6 million people involved in subsistence farming. The most important cereals are maize, finger millet and sorghum in that order. Finger millet is the second most important cereal in Uganda after maize and exceeding sorghum both in area and production. It is the staple food for over 50% of the country’s 24.6 million people and increasingly a major source of income. It grows in all ecological areas of the country. Its preference as food is related to tribal and social groupings and readily available supply of other foods like banana, sweet potato, maize or cassava. The areas where finger millet can grow are also determined by rainfall and soils. Finger millet technologies released to the farming community over the years include improved varieties resistant to blast and crop management packages. Wider utilization of finger millet grains in livestock feeds, beer, and biscuits and in making other finished products will help in widening its consumption and production. This is an opportunity to be exploited. 1 Serere Agricultural and Animal Production Research Institute (SAARI), P.O. Box Soroti, Uganda