Millet in Gedaref: A Meal for Fasting in Breakfast and Suhoor

Gedaref – Talal Ismail – almohagig

Before the time of fasting at dawn on a day of the month of Ramadan, the merchant Jalal Awad Al-Sayyid in the Abayo neighbourhood, south of Gedaref, eastern Sudan, was keen to give his guests a mixture of millet with milk to begin the fast of a new day.

Gedaref markets witness a constant movement in buying millet grains during Ramadan, as it is used in many uses for breakfast or suhoor, in contrast to its many uses in the rest of the other months.

Millet is used to prepare the most famous Sudanese meal during Ramadan, “porridge.” It is also served as a hot drink mixed with milk, which is part of what the people of Gedaref eat for breakfast, according to an AlMohagig correspondent’s tour of the city.

While reviewing its benefits, Jalal said, “At suhoor, I only eat millet. I have been accustomed to that for years, as it is a rich meal.”

Millet is sold in the markets at low prices, and it is possible to buy it in various weights for 500 Sudanese pounds. A family can prepare a meal from it. It is also considered the most important meal for workers in the crop market in Gedaref, where a hearty meal called “Gado Gado” is made from it, with quantities of milk, jam, and sugar added to it and served as a cold drink.

In the first week of December 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at its headquarters in Rome, celebrated the opening of the first International Year of Millet activities under the slogan (International Year of Millet 2023). It says it constitutes an ideal solution for countries wishing to increase their self-sufficiency and reduce their dependence on imported grains; it grows in dry lands with minimal inputs and can withstand climate change.

Millet is grown in various countries, including India, Mali, Nigeria, Sudan, and Pakistan. The global production of millet and its grains amounts to approximately 30 million tons every year, and the continents of Asia and Africa lead the vast majority of this production, as Africa produces about 20% of the global output, amounting to 1.05 million tons. The largest African-producing countries are Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan and Uganda.

According to official statistics, Sudan is characterized by a great diversity in indigenous millet samples and strains, estimated at more than two thousand (2000) species, distributed in the various regions of the country in western Sudan, especially the North Kordofan, Gedaref, Kassala, Al-Gash, Sinnar, and Blue Nile regions.

The country’s millet cultivation area is about 7 million acres and is concentrated in the West, the most important of which are North Kordofan, Gedaref, Kassala, Blue Nile, and New Halfa.

But they all suffer from a terrible decline in productivity, amounting to less than half a ton per acre. The total volume of production does not exceed 800 thousand tons.