School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemDo native Australian perennial grains have a place in modern farming systems? The case of Panicum decompositum( 2019)The use of perennial grains in Australian farming systems has the potential to mitigate climate change, regenerate soil health and provide a sustainable source of sustenance. Although the proof of concept has been validated under Australian conditions, a commercially viable perennial grain cultivar is yet to be found. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of Panicum decompositum (native millet) – a hardy native Australian perennial grass – as a contemporary resource, on the basis that it has a long history of use by various Aboriginal nations of Australia. Firstly, we conducted an in-depth archival assessment to find and collate all relevant archival information on native millet, Aboriginal grass seed culture and Australian grassland ecosystems. This information then dictated how we designed subsequent experiments. The results revealed that native millet is of nutritional value and compares quite favourably to other widely consumed grains such as wheat, rice and maiz. We found that milling native millet grain with water (wet-milling) rather than without water (drymilling)significantly increases the iron, sodium, calcium and boron content of the milled product. A digital image analysis and sensory analysis of bread baked with both native millet and wheat flour, indicated that native millet grain is palatable when baked, and can have a significant effect on the sensory and techno-functional qualities of ‘white bread’. Overall, the results indicated that native millet has the potential to be used in modern farming systems, but further study is needed to understand its potential as a perennial grain cultivar that could meet the same demands as widely used grain crops, such as annual wheat. We found that the archives were limited in their ability to truly 12 represent all Australian Aboriginal knowledge on native millet, thus we recommend that further research initially focus on investigating and collating Aboriginal oral histories. Our study may be used to inform the locations and nature of future research efforts.