Cereals from ancient times accounted for a significant part of the human diet. The list of major grain crops includes: rye, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, sorghum, millet, rice, corn. The cereal plant belongs to the class Monocotyledonous. They have a straw stem, leaves have parallel venation, a fibrous root, and a fruit is a caryopsis. All types of plants are divided into winter crops (they are sown in late summer or early autumn) and spring (sown in spring).
Cereals
Cereals (photo in the text) - without exaggeration, the most important group of cultivated plants. Grain is not only a food product for humans and farm animals, but also serves as a raw material for numerous industries.
In its composition, cereal grain contains:
- carbohydrates;
- proteins;
- enzymes;
- vitamins PP, group B (B 1 , B 2 , B 6 ), provitamin A.
Wheat
With the phrase "cereals" wheat immediately comes to mind. It is grown on all continents (except Antarctica). Nearly 140 million hectares of fertile land are occupied under its crops.
Modern selection provides the opportunity to cultivate more than 4000 varieties. In the steppes you can find 20 species of wild wheat. The birthplace of culture is southwest Asia: Palestine, Mesopotamia, Jordan, Syria.
Wheat is present in the daily diet of almost half of the world's inhabitants. Grains are used for flour, cereals and pasta. It is simply impossible to list all the products that can be prepared from processed wheat grains . Their variety is impressive.
There are three main types:
- odnozernyanka;
- two-grain (emmer);
- spelled.
They are the progenitors of all subspecies known today. Hard wheat varieties come from emmer. They are better suited to dry climates. They are grown in the USA, Australia, Canada. Hard cereal goes to the production of pasta. Unsorted wheat goes to livestock feed. Sowing belongs to the large spelled family. This is the main material for breeding new varieties.
Millet
Millet, although it belongs to the category of “cereals,” is not used for baking bread. The grain goes to the cereal, and from the flour bake cakes and bread. The homeland of this cereal is China and Mongolia. Scythians cultivated millet in the IV-V centuries. Excavations in the area of the Middle Dnieper confirm this fact. In ancient China, millet was listed among five plants that were considered sacred.
Millet has a high protein content (more only in wheat). Millet seed is the smallest and hardest among cereals. When processing grain, the outer silicon shell is removed (it is not digested in the human stomach). After this, the cereal is perfectly digested and perfectly absorbed.
It is also valuable as a forage crop. Millet is widely used in animal husbandry, especially in the poultry industry.
There are up to 500 species of this cereal. Millet tolerates drought both soil and air. An unpretentious and hardy plant requires only well-aerated soil - from it the roots use breathing air. Productivity reaches 18 centners per hectare. Under crops occupied 12 million hectares.
Millet is divided into the following types of cereals:
Sorghum
Sorghum cereal is from Africa. His wild ancestor was lost in past centuries, nothing is known about him for certain. In tropical countries, sorghum is an important bread crop. Resistance to drought (it is sometimes called a camel in the plant world) and high productivity put it out of competition for cultivation in arid areas of the earth.
A feature of the culture is that when harvesting for grain, the stems and leaves retain juicy greens. This makes it possible to use sorghum for feeding livestock in the form of silage or green mass.
Interestingly, hybrid sorghum varieties yield 40% more than the parent pair. This property is widely used to obtain record grain yields. Porridge is made from it, as from ordinary cereals. Flour is used for baking bread, pancakes and other flour dishes.
Rye
Compared to wheat, rye is considered a younger bread crop. She was not found in the dwellings of our ancestors from the Stone Age. She was not in the tombs.
Initially, rye appeared in the cultivated crops of wheat as a weed. In the harsh conditions of the north and the mountains, wheat yielded poor crops and died. Rye, on the other hand, tolerated harsh conditions. Over time, it changed into a cultivated cereal.
Even in the first century, the scientist Pliny from Rome gave her such a characteristic: heavy flour, dark, bread of poor quality, suitable only to satisfy hunger. Nevertheless, the nutritional value of rye flour products is high.
Currently, culture is cultivated mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. Cultivated up to 8 species in Asia, Europe and Africa. There are spring and winter varieties of this plant. Productivity reaches 2 tons per hectare. In addition to being a cereal crop that produces excellent yields, rye is used as a natural baking powder. The roots of the plant, well-branched, penetrate deep into the soil, grow intensively and loosen the fertile layer.
Unpretentious culture can grow on poor soils. A feature of rye is its ability to grow well in high altitude conditions. In the Alps, rye is found even at an altitude of 2000 meters.
From the flour of this cereal, you can bake not only bread, but also delicious pastries, the main thing is that the flour is of good quality. Relatively cheap in production, the culture is also used for feeding farm animals.
Corn
Corn, or maize, is an annual cereal. The birthplace of this amazing plant is South and Central America. Culture hit the European continent at the end of the fifteenth century.
Corn stands out from all known cereals for its gigantic growth. The horse tooth variety can grow up to 5 meters. The largest crops are harvested in the homeland of corn. The mild warm climate and heavy rainfall are the best suited for its cultivation.
Modern selection offers grain and fodder varieties. To date, nine botanical groups are known:
- tooth-like;
- bursting;
- siliceous;
- semi-dentate (the most common);
- starchy;
- sugar;
- starchy sugar;
- membranous (practically not grown);
- waxy (small areas of cultivation).
Rice
Presumably the birthplace of rice is India. There it has been cultivated for many millennia. He has been known in Europe from the 8th century BC, in Central Asia from the 2nd-3rd centuries BC, and in America from the 15th-16th centuries. Scientists are inclined to believe that it was rice that was the very first culture bred by man.
This cereal has up to 20 species; more than one thousand of its varieties are known. But all this variety is divided according to the shape of the grain into three types:
- long grain;
- round grain;
- medium grained.
Each year, breeders breed new plant types. The need for a high-yielding and hardy variety is very high. This is due to the fact that more than half of the world's population consider rice the main food in their diet. No wonder it is called white gold and second bread (although bread is not baked from it).
Rice is cultivated in countries with a tropical climate. This requires special technology. The main thing for culture is abundant watering and warmth. Water plays a crucial role - after all, the cultivation itself takes place in fields flooded with water.
Barley
Along with wheat, barley is the oldest cereal on the planet. Mention of him was found in different cultures of the peoples of Europe, Central and Western Asia, in Egypt.
Like wheat, it is represented on all continents of the planet. The plant is cultivated in tropical areas and in northern areas. Barley is called the most "northern" cereal. It can be found up to 70 latitudes (in Norway). It grows in mountain conditions:
- at an altitude of up to 1900 m in the Alps;
- at an altitude of up to 2700 m in the Caucasus;
- at an altitude of up to 3050 m in the Hindu Kush;
- at an altitude of up to 4700 m in Tibet.
Barley is picky about soils. Sour and sandy areas are not suitable for its cultivation. Too wet or swampy areas carry the risk of freezing crops. In general, the quality of the grain itself largely depends on the processing of the fertile layer. Currently, about 30 plant species are known. There are winter and spring varieties.
Oats
It is believed that oats were first cultivated in Europe. Wild culture is very sensitive to cold, so scientists believe that it cannot be a direct ancestor of modern oats. There is a theory that all cereals were bred on Atlantis - a sunken continent.
Today, there are about 25 species of oats. It is a very healthy food product. A low fat content in the grain helps unload cholesterol metabolism. This provides protection for the heart and circulatory system, prevents atherosclerosis.
In agriculture, grain is used in its pure form for feeding different types of animals or as a component in feed mixtures.