  eleusine coracana is an annual plant widely grown as a cereal in the arid areas of africa and asia. earliest karnataka civilisation shows it was grown in hallur in the later iron age. it remains one of the main ingredients of the staple diet in karnataka. it is commonly known as finger millet, african finger millet, red millet, caracan millet, koracan, and ragi . e. coracana is native to the ethiopian highlands.a.c. d'andrea, d.e. lyons, mitiku haile, e.a. butler, "ethnoarchaeological approaches to the study of prehistoric agriculture in the ethiopian highlands" in van der veen, ed., the exploitation of plant resources in ancient africa. kluwer academic: plenum publishers, new york, 1999. it is very adaptable to higher elevations and is grown in the himalaya up to 2,300 metres in elevation. ==history== finger millet have been cultivated in india from as far back as 4000 years ago. now the indian states of karnataka, andhra pradesh, tamil nadu, bihar and few others produce ragi. karnataka is the top producer of ragi and has 58% share in india's export of this crop. (https://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%e0%ae%95%e0%af%87%e0%ae%b4%e0%af%8d%e0%ae%b5%e0%ae%b0%e0%ae%95%e0%af%81) translate using google translate == cultivation == eleusine coracana 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). thumbnail|280px|finger millet although statistics on individual millet species are confused, and are sometimes combined with sorghum, it is estimated that finger millet is grown on approximately 38,000&nbsp;km2. india is a major cultivator of finger millet with a total cultivated area of 15870&nbsp;km2. the state of karnataka is the leading producer of finger millet, known as ragi in the region, accounting for 58% of india's ragi production.[http://agmarknet.nic.in/ragi.pdf govt of india - ministry of agrr
Chloridoideae Crops_originating_from_Ethiopia Millets