Sorgo e milheto sao reconhecidos internacionalmente como produtos estrategicos com relacao a seguranca alimentar, especificamente em ambientes menos favoraveis como nos tropicos semi-aridos. Este trabalho resume os ambientes de producao e pesquisa relacionados a estes produtos em cada uma das principais regioes, afim de servir de guia para trabalhos de pesquisas necessarios para se obter melhorias sustentadas na producao.

Both sorghum and pearl millet are staple food crops for the poor people in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). However, during the last two decades both crops are becoming less important as staple food crops in SAT countries. Demand for course cereals (such as sorghum and pearl millet) as human food is decreasing in many countries, due to increased production and availability of preferred cereals (such as rice and wheat) at subsidized prices. The poor farmers in rainfed SAT cannot grow other crops, and are economically impacted negatively, as they do not get reasonable price for their produce. However, possibilties of alternative uses of sorghum and pearl millet are creating new opportunities that have potential to increase market demand and income to farmers.

Improved food security, led by increased productivity among Africa's many small-scale farmers, has been the aim of significant national and international effort in recent decades. It has proved to be one of the most critical challenges facing humankind. This book grew out of a two-year exploration conducted by the food security theme of The Rockefeller Foundation focusing on the potential for crop genetic improvement to contribute to food security among rural populations in Africa. It provides a critical assessment of the ways in which recent breakthroughs in biotechnology, participatory plant breeding, and seed systems can be broadly employed in developing and delivering more productive crop varieties in Africa's diverse agricultural environments. It also presents an analysis of current plant breeding and biotechnology strategies for the key crops in Africa including: maize, sorghum, cowpea, rice, and cassava. The book will appeal to plant breeders, biotechnologists, and seed distributors as well as policy-makers in the area of agricultural development.

The Indian subdistrict of Shahabad, located in the dwindling forests of the southeastern tip of Rajasthan, is an area of extreme poverty. Beset by droughts and food shortages in recent years, it is the home of the Sahariyas, former bonded laborers, officially classified as Rajasthan’s only “primitive tribe.” From afar, we might consider this the bleakest of the bleak, but in Poverty and the Quest for Life, Bhrigupati Singh asks us to reconsider just what quality of life means. He shows how the Sahariyas conceive of aspiration, advancement, and vitality in both material and spiritual terms, and how such bridging can engender new possibilities of life. Singh organizes his study around two themes: power and ethics, through which he explores a complex terrain of material and spiritual forces. Authority remains contested, whether in divine or human forms; the state is both despised and desired; high and low castes negotiate new ways of living together, in conflict but also cooperation; new gods move across rival social groups; animals and plants leave their tracks on human subjectivity and religiosity; and the potential for vitality persists even as natural resources steadily disappear. Studying this milieu, Singh offers new ways of thinking beyond the religion-secularism and nature-culture dichotomies, juxtaposing questions about quality of life with political theologies of sovereignty, neighborliness, and ethics, in the process painting a rich portrait of perseverance and fragility in contemporary rural India.

This work is based on the Mexico 2000 meeting under the auspices of ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics) and INTSORMIL (International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program). Sorghum and millet are very important agronomic crops in many parts of the world, specifically in the semi-arid regions in warm areas. The crops are of great significance in supplying food and feed in the developing areas of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Taking a novel approach to the contradictory impulses of violence and care, illness and healing, this book radically shifts the way we think of the interrelations of institutions and experiences in a globalizing world. Living and Dying in the Contemporary World is not just another reader in medical anthropology but a true tour de force—a deep exploration of all that makes life unbearable and yet livable through the labor of ordinary people. This book comprises forty-four chapters by scholars whose ethnographic and historical work is conducted around the globe, including South Asia, East Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Bringing together the work of established scholars with the vibrant voices of younger scholars, Living and Dying in the Contemporary World will appeal to anthropologists, sociologists, health scientists, scholars of religion, and all who are curious about how to relate to the rapidly changing institutions and experiences in an ever more connected world.

Millets and sorghum are extremely important crops in many developing nations and because of the ability of many of them to thrive in low-moisture situations they represent some exciting opportunities for further development to address the continuing and increasing impact of global temperature increase on the sustainability of the world’s food crops. The main focus of this thorough new book is the potential for crop improvement through new and traditional methods, with the book’s main chapters covering the following crops: sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail milet, proso millet, little millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, tef and fonio. Further chapters cover pests and diseases, nutritional and industrial importance, novel tools for improvement, and seed systems in millets. Millets and Sorghum provides full and comprehensive coverage of these crucially important crops, their biology, world status and potential for improvement, and is an essential purchase for crop and plant scientists, and food scientists and technologists throughout the developed and developing world. All libraries in universities and research establishment where biological and agricultural sciences are studied and taught should have copies of this important book on their shelves.