Harvesting Millet

In the Midwest corn and soy beans are a big deal. I’ve now transitioned to a different agriculture setting where millet and rice are all the rave. The harvest season is in full swing at the moment, with millet being the first of the two crops to come in. For those of you who don’t know what millet is, it’s a plant that’s in the same family as corn (I believe), and is probably most commonly found in bird feed in the US. Here’s what it looks like…

I thought it would be fitting to describe the process by which millet is harvested. I’m somewhat amused with some aspects and I think it sheds light on certain intricacies of the culture here.

Step 1: Knock the millet stalks down into rows.

Step 2: Use a small hand blade to cut the heads off the stalks (where the grain is)

Step 3: Bundle and bind the stalks together to be used as animal fodder during the hot season when nothing grows anywhere.

Step 4: Take the heads to a threshing floor where the millet will be removed from the heads

Step 5: Call in a large truck (think dump truck) to drive in circles over the heads to accomplish said threshing (in this situation the truck is referred to as a “millet grinding machine”, not a “dump truck” as its German Mercedes-Benz mechanical engineers would have envisioned).

Step 6: Gather the grain into 100 kg (220 lb) sacks, which are then carried by a single man to a cow cart, hauled into town, and then again carried by a single man from the cart to the farmers house or grain silo (made out of mud of course).

Step 7a: If the farmer has a silo, first place a tarp on the ground and then dump the millet out of the sacks onto the tarp. Remove the straw roof from the silo. Then take large bowls, fill them with millet, and hand them to someone standing on an old oil drum (acting as a step ladder) who dumps the millet into the grain silo.

Step 7b: When the silo looks like it’s about to be full but you still have 10 or 15 sacks left remaining to be stored, continue to empty them out onto the tarp. Then take a ten minute rest, eat some spicy peanut butter and millet flour balls, and put all the millet you just dumped out back into the sacks they arrived in and carry the sacks into the house adjacent to the tarp. For this two people are allowed to carry one sack.

Step 8: The following day, gather straw and a bucket of water. Lay the straw over the millet at the top of the silo. Use the water and a hand hoe to make mud and then spread the mud over the straw. This will create that precious “freshness seal” that’s all the rave these days. (If you’re wondering how you get the millet out, there’s a door in the wall towards the top for later access.)

Step 9: Put the roof back on the silo.

(millet photos taken from : womensnutritiontips.com & merliannews.com)