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03/11/24 10:58 AM IST

kodo millet

In News
  • Ten wild elephants from a herd of 13 died over the last three days in Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
Kodo millet
  • Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) is also known as Kodra and Varagu in India.
  • The crop is grown in India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and West Africa.
  • The millet is believed to have originated in India and Madhya Pradesh is one of the largest producers of the crop.
  • The tropical and subtropical regions are best suited for Kodo millet cultivation and it is grown on poor soils, and widely distributed in arid and semi-arid regions.
  • Apart from MP, the millet is cultivated in Gujarat, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and parts of Tamil Nadu.
  • Some of the famous dishes that can be made with kodo millets include idli, dosa, papad, chakli, porridges, and rotis.
  • Kodo millet is a staple food for many tribal and economically weaker sections in India.
  • It is one of the “hardiest crops, drought tolerant with high yield potential and excellent storage properties.
Kodo poinsoning
  • The first animal documented to have kodo poisoning was in February 1922 when Swarup wrote that a landholder from Tilhar told him that a dog which had eaten a kodo-made bread fell sick.
  • The reasons for kodo poisoning first came to light after researchers established “the association of the mycotoxin, cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), with kodo millet seeds causing ‘kodua poisoning.”
  • Millets are more prone to fungal infection followed by bacterial and viral; these infections adversely affect the grain and fodder yield.
  • Ergot is a parasitic fungal endophyte that grows in the ear heads of various blades of grass, most frequently on kodo millet. Consumption of such kodo grains is often found to cause poisoning.
  • CPA (Cyclopiazonic acid) is one of the major mycotoxins associated with the kodo millet seeds causing kodo poisoning which was first recognised during the mid-eighties”.
  • Kodo poisoning occurs mainly due to the consumption of kodo grains, when “maturing and harvesting if the grains had encountered with rainfall, resulting in a fungal infection leading to ‘poisoned kodo’ which is locally known as ‘Matawna Kodoo’ or ‘Matona Kodo’ in northern India.”
  • Once infected, “feed or food containing mycotoxins are condemned since these toxins are strong and stable against thermal, physical, and chemical treatments during food processing.”
  • Kodo poisoning mainly affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems and the chief symptoms include “vomiting, giddiness, and unconsciousness, small and rapid pulse, cold extremities, shaking of limbs and tremors.”
  • Since CPA is the prime constituent of kodo poisoning, toxicity studies have shown degeneration, necrosis, and liver dysfunction,  lesions of the myocardium, by affecting calcium signalling in the heart, leading to cardiomyocyte damage and impaired heart function as some of the symptoms.
Preventive measures
  • The  use of biocontrol agents, meaning the “use of an organism to fight against another organism” in the case of kodo poisoning.
  • Farmers should follow “good agricultural practices coupled with good post-harvest management like sorting and proper storage, preferably in hermetic/airtight devices to significantly decrease mycotoxins.”
  • Since the fungi spread fast in the moist environment “harvested heaps must be sheltered from the rain” and the “old practice of threshing by moistening the plants before threshing should be stopped.”
  • Removing the infected grains also “helps in reducing the spread of the disease.”
Source- Indian Express

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