Pearl millet
Pennisetum glaucum (L)R.Br.
Temperature
25°C to 35°C
Rainfall
343mm to 1080mm per season
Conditions
What it needs
Soil
Light sandy soils, including ones too poor and too dry for maize or sorghum. Will not stand waterlogging.
Water
The most drought-tolerant cereal in the region. It sets grain on rainfall that would fail maize outright, which is why it holds the driest farmland in the Sahel.
What you will need
Tick what you already have; Grow carries the rest into the cost working.
Grow holds no supplier listings and no local prices, so it cannot tell you where to buy these or what they cost near you. Ask at your nearest agrodealer or extension office, then put those figures into the planner.
Through the season
Stages
- 01
Land preparation
10 days- Clear and prepare a fine seedbed
- Spread manure
- 02
Planting
3 days- Sow with the first reliable rains
- Sow shallow
- 03
Establishment
21 days- Thin to the right stand
- First weeding
- 04
Stem elongation
25 days- Second weeding
- Watch for striga
- 05
Heading and grain fill
30 days- Scare birds
- Watch for downy mildew
- 06
Harvest and drying
14 days- Cut heads when hard
- Dry fully before storing
Watch for
Common problems
Downy mildew
- What you will see
- Pale streaks on leaves with a white growth underneath, and heads that turn leafy instead of setting grain.
- What to do
- Plant resistant varieties and treated seed, rotate away from millet, and pull out affected plants before the heads open.
Striga (witchweed)
- What you will see
- Small purple-flowered weeds around the stems, with the crop stunted and yellow around them.
- What to do
- Pull striga before it flowers, rotate with a legume, and add manure — striga is worst on exhausted soil.
Birds
- What you will see
- Heads stripped of grain from the milk stage onwards.
- What to do
- Scare from the milk stage, plant in a block with neighbours rather than alone, and choose varieties that mature together.
Follow the label for doses, and ask an extension officer or vet before using a chemical you have not used before.