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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Fonio [Digitaria exilis (Kippist.) Stapf.] is a cereal which is experiencing a renewed interest worldwide due to its organoleptic, nutritional and dietary qualities. Investigations on farm and sample collections were conducted in order to study the different types of fonio by famers’ perception and its position relative to other crops in agricultural systems to its production area in Niger. The results were used to classify the accessions according to the length of their cycle into four types of varieties: extra -early, early, intermediate and late. Classification on the basis of the color of unshelled beans has three distinct varieties: varieties of color brown or black (10.4% of accessions collected), varieties of color gray or pale yellow (87.2 % accessions) and varieties with black hairs on the spikelets (2.4% of accessions). The classification on the basis of the position given by the farmers during the interview and, cultivated fonio indicates that occupies the third place among the cultivated species for 19 % of the farmers surveyed and 4th place 43% of peasants. However, it is not cultivated by 19 % of farmers surveyed, these harvest wild fonio (Panicum laetum. Kunth) that grows near swamps. Sowing fonio is done on the fly and the different varieties are alone or sometimes mixed in peasant farms surveyed. The evolution of the production of fonio in recent years is also variable depending on the villages surveyed. She saw an increase of 49 % of villages, stability to 2% and a 30% decline. A loss of culture fonio was even recorded in 19% of the surveyed villages.