Cereals, Grains & Pasta

Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible grains or seeds (technically a type of fruit called a caryopsis). Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities worldwide than any other type of crop and provide more food energy to the human race than any other crop. more...

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In some developing nations, cereal grains constitute practically the entire diet of common folk. In developed nations, cereal consumption is more moderate but still substantial. The word cereal derives from Ceres, the name of the Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture. Grains are traditionally called corn in the United Kingdom, though that word became specified for maize in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Production

The following table shows annual production of major cereal grains, in 1961 and 2005, ranked by 2005 production. All but buckwheat and quinoa are true grasses (these two are pseudocereals).

Maize, wheat and rice, between them, accounted for 87% of all grain production, worldwide, and 43% of all food calories in 2003. Other grains that are important in some places, but that have little production globally (and are not included in FAO statistics), include:

Teff, popular in Ethiopia but scarcely known elsewhere; Wild rice, grown in small amounts in North America; Spelt, a close relative of wheat; Grain amaranth, ancient pseudocereal, formerly the staple crop of the Aztec Empire; Kañiwa, close relative of quinoa, to which it is quite similar;

Cultivation

While each individual species has its own peculiarities, the cultivation of all cereals crops is similar. All are annual plants; consequently one planting yields one harvest. Wheat, rye, triticale, oats, barley, and spelt are the cool-season cereals. These are hardy plants that grow well in moderate weather and cease to grow in hot weather (approximately 30 °C but this varies by species and variety). The other warm-season cereals are tender and prefer hot weather.

Barley and rye are the hardiest cereals, able to overwinter in the subarctic and Siberia. Wheat is the most popular. All cool-season cereals are grown in the tropics, but only in the cool highlands, where it may be possible to grow multiple crops in a year.

Planting

The warm-season cereals are grown in tropical lowlands year-round and in temperate climates during the frost-free season.

Cool-season cereals are well-adapted to temperate climates. Most varieties of a particular species are either winter or spring types. Winter varieties are sown in the autumn, germinate and grow vegetatively, then become dormant during winter. They resume growing in the springtime and mature in late spring or early summer. This cultivation system makes optimal use of water and frees the land for another crop early in the growing season. Winter varieties do not flower until springtime because they require vernalization (exposure to low temperature for a genetically determined length of time). Where winters are too warm for vernalization or exceed the hardiness of the crop (which varies by species and variety), farmers grow spring varieties. Spring cereals are planted in early springtime and mature later that same summer, without vernalization. Spring cereals typically require more irrigation and yield less than winter cereals.

Read more at Wikipedia.org