Unique to the world, the super future food - Taiwan oil millet sees the light of day again! More nutritious than rice and wheat, drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant and stress-tolerant

Across a world under the shadow of the novel coronavirus, the food crisis that agricultural and grain experts have warned about for years has arrived at the gates. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which recently stated on its official website, "The world is facing a looming food crisis, and measures must be taken as soon as possible to maintain the global food supply chain and reduce the impact of the pandemic on food systems, otherwise the worst situation will occur in April and May."

This is no alarmist talk. Vietnam, the world's third-largest rice exporter, once proposed suspending rice exports; Kazakhstan, the world's largest exporter of wheat flour, has banned wheat flour exports and also restricted the export volume of root vegetables such as onions, potatoes and carrots. If the pandemic continues to worsen, coupled with climate change already underway, countries must be more active in finding solutions to a possible food crisis.

At such a moment, Taiwan oil millet, a crop that can withstand harsh land conditions such as drought, cold and salinization and is called a "super future food," is being planted separately by the Kaohsiung Agricultural Improvement Station and Bunun farmer Qiu Guichun of Yanping Township, Taitung; on the other hand, research institutions such as the Academia Sinica have also launched a new wave of oil millet research projects; and commercial applications of oil millet are also being pursued on multiple fronts, awaiting a major breakout when conditions are ripe.

Super future food - oil millet is highly nutritious

Taiwan oil millet is a perennial plant of the genus Spodiopogon in the grass family, with a plant height of 80-120 cm, and sometimes the thicker stems become lignified. Since ancient times, it has been a traditional crop of indigenous peoples, along with millet, red quinoa, pigeon pea and others.

According to research by Academia Sinica, the nutrients contained in oil millet grains are far higher than those in rice. Whether in fat, protein, calcium, magnesium or potassium content, they are considerable, and it also contains amino acids such as glutamic acid and serine, which other grains lack.