Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), also known as African millet or Ragi, is an annual plant widely grown as a cereal in the arid areas of Africa and Asia. Finger millet is originally native in Africa and was introduced into India approximately 4000 years ago. It is very adaptable to higher elevations and is grown in the Himalaya up to 2300 metres altitude.

Cultivation
Finger millet is often intercropped with legumes such as peanuts (Arachis hypogea), cowpeas (Vigna sinensis), and pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan), or other plants such as Niger seeds (Guizotia abyssinica).

Although statistics on individual millet species are confused, and are sometimes combined with sorghum, it is estimated that finger millet is grown on approximately 3.8 million hectares.

Storage
Once harvested, the seeds keep extremely well and are seldom attacked by insects or moulds. The long storage capacity makes finger millet an important crop in risk avoidance strategies for poorer farming communities.

Nutrition
Finger millet is especially valuable as it contains the amino acid methionine, which

is lacking in the diets of hundreds of millions of the poor who live on starchy staples such as cassava, plantain, polished rice, or maize meal. Finger millet can be ground and cooked into cakes, puddings or porridge. The grain is made into a fermented drink (or beer) in many parts of Africa. The straw from finger millet is used as animal fodder.

Preparation as food
In South India, Ragi flour is boiled in water and the resultant preparation, called Ragi Mudde is eaten with Sambar. In India, finger millet or ragi is mostly grown and consumed in the southern states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Ragi flour is made into flatbreads, including thick, leavened Dosa and thinner, unleavened Roti. Ragi grain is malted and flour from the malted grain is consumed after mixing with Milk/Boiled water/Yoghurt.

Ragi flour is usually eaten as Ragi Mudde (literally, Ragi paste. also called Ragi balls, for the round shape.). The Mudde which is prepared by boiling the Ragi flour in water until the water is condensed. The resulting preparation is then rolled into a spherical form and consumed, after applying Ghee with Sambar.

Finger millet in its commonly consumed form as porridge also

Common names for finger millet
Arabic: Tailabon
English: Finger millet, African millet, ragi, koracan
Ethiopia: Dagussa (Amharic/Sodo), tokuso (amharic), barankiya (Oromo)
French: eleusine cultivee, coracan, koracan
German: Fingerhirse
India: Ragi (Kannada, Telugu), Kelvaragu (Tamil), Maduva (in some parts of north INDIA), Nachani (Marathi)
Kenya: Wimbi (kiswahili), mugimbi (Kikuyu)
Nepal: Koddo
Sudan: Tailabon (Arabic), ceyut ( Bari)
Swahili: Wimbi, ulezi
Tanzania: Mwimbi, mbege
Uganda: Bulo
Zambia: Kambale, lupoko, mawele, majolothi, amale, bule
Zimbabwe: Rapoko, zviyo, njera, rukweza, mazhovole, uphoko, poho