A cereal is an edible wheat component (botanically, a kind of fruit called caryopsis) of cultivated grass, composed of endosperms, germs, and bran. Cereal grains are grown in larger quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than other types of plants and therefore staple crops. Eatable grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat (Polygonaceae), quinoa (Amaranthaceae) and chia (Lamiaceae), are referred to as pseudocereals.
In their natural form (as in whole wheat ), cereals are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, oils, and proteins. When perfected with the removal of bran and germs, the remaining endosperm is mostly carbohydrates. In some developing countries, grains in the form of rice, wheat, millet, or corn are the majority of daily food. In developed countries, consumption of cereals is moderate and varied but still substantial.
The word cereal comes from Ceres , the goddess of the harvest and the Roman farm.
Video Cereal
Ancient history
Agriculture is allowed to support an increase in population, leading to greater community and eventually urban development. It also creates a need for larger political power organizations (and the creation of social stratification), because decisions must be made regarding the allocation of labor and crops and the right to access to water and land. Agriculture is hijacked immobility, because the population persists for long periods of time, leading to the accumulation of material goods.
The early Neolithic village showed evidence of the development of grain processing. The Levant is the ancient home of the ancestors of wheat, barley and peas, where many of these villages are based. There is evidence of the planting of figs in the Jordan Valley over 11,300 years ago, and the production of cereals (grains) in Syria about 9,000 years ago. During the same period, farmers in China began planting rice and millet, using man-made floods and fires as part of their cultivation regimen. Fiber crops are domesticated since food crops, with China taming flax, cotton developed independently in Africa and South America, and West Asia tame the flax. The use of land amendments, including manure, fish, compost and ash, appears to have started early, and developed independently in several regions of the world, including Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and East Asia.
The first cereal grains were domesticated by early primitive humans. About 8,000 years ago, they were domesticated by an ancient farming community in the Fertile Crescent region. Wheat Emmer, wheat einkorn, and barley are the three so-called Neolithic founding plants in agricultural development. Around the same time, millet and ripe began to be domesticated in East Asia. Sorgum and millet are also domesticated in sub-Saharan West Africa.
Maps Cereal
Green Revolution
During the second half of the 20th century there was a spectacular increase in the production of high cereal yields worldwide, especially wheat and rice, due to the initiative known as the Green Revolution. The strategy developed by the Green Revolution focuses on fending off hunger and is very successful in improving overall cereal grain yield, but it does not seem to provide sufficient relevance to nutritional quality. High yields of this cereal have low-quality protein, with a deficiency of essential amino acids, high carbohydrates, and lack of essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and other quality factors.
Agriculture
While each species has its own peculiarities, the planting of all cereal plants is the same. Most are annual crops; consequently one plant produces one harvest. Wheat, rye, triticale, oats, barley, and spelled are "winter" cereals. It is a hard plant that grows well in moderate weather and stops growing in hot weather (about 30 ° C [86 ° F], but this varies by species and variety). Cereal "warm season" soft and prefer hot weather. Barley and rye are the hardest cereals, able to withstand winter in subarctic and Siberia. Many winter cereals are grown in the tropics. However, some only grow in the cooler plateau, where it is possible to plant several crops per year.
Over the last few decades, there has also been an increasing interest in perennial grain crops. This interest develops due to the advantages in erosion control, reduced fertilizer demand, and the potential cost reduction for farmers. Although research is still in its early stages, The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas has been able to create some cultivars that produce good crops.
Plant
Warm season cereals are grown in tropical lowlands throughout the year and in temperate climates during the frost free season. Rice is commonly grown in flooded fields, although some strains are grown on dry land. Other warm climate cereals, such as sorghum, are adapted to dry conditions.
Winter cereal is well suited for moderate climates. Most varieties of a particular species are either winter or spring . Winter varieties are planted in autumn, germinate and grow vegetatively, then become inactive during the winter. They begin to grow in spring and mature in the late spring or early summer. This cultivation system utilizes water optimally and frees the land for other crops early in the growing season.
Winter varieties do not bloom until spring because they require vernalization: low temperature exposure for a genetically determined time period. Where winters are too warm to vernalize or exceed plant resilience (which varies by species and variety), farmers grow spring varieties. Spring cereal is grown in early spring and matures in the same summer, without vernalization. Spring cereals usually require more irrigation and produce less than winter cereal.
Harvest
After the cereal plants grow their seeds, they have completed their life cycle. Plants die, become brown, and dry. As soon as the parent plant and seeds are dry enough, the harvest can begin.
In developed countries, cereal crops are universally harvested machines, usually using a combined harvest, which cuts, threshes, and wins grains during a single pass in the field. In developing countries, various methods of harvesting are in use, depending on labor costs, from incorporating to hand tools such as crescent or cradle wheat.
If the plants are harvested during humid weather, the grains may not dry enough in the field to prevent decay during storage. In this case, the grains are sent to a dehydration facility, where artificial heat dries them.
In North America, farmers usually deliver their newly harvested grains to grain elevators, large storage facilities that consolidate the crops of many farmers. Farmers can sell grain at the time of delivery or retain ownership of the wheat portion in the pond for sale later. Storage facilities should be protected from small grain pests, rodents and birds.
Production
The following table shows the annual production of cereals in 1961, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 in the production ratings of 2013.
Corn, wheat and rice together accounted for 89% of all cereal production worldwide by 2012, and 43% of all food calories in 2009, while wheat and triticale production has dropped dramatically from the 1960s level.
Other cereals worth noting, but not included in FAO statistics, include:
- Teff, the ancient grain that is the staple food in Ethiopia. It's high in fiber and protein. The flour is often used to make injera. It can also be eaten as a hearty breakfast cereal similar to farina with a taste of chocolate or spicy. Flour and wheat products can usually be found in natural food stores.
- Wild rice, growing in small quantities in North America.
Several other types of wheat have also been domesticated, some early in agricultural history:
- Spelled out, ordinary near-wheat relatives.
- Einkorn, wheat species with a single grain.
- Emmer, one of the first plants to be domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. Durum, the only species of wheat tetraploid grown today, is used to make semolina.
- Kamut, an ancient ancient relative with an unknown history.
In 2013 global cereal production reached a record 2,521 million tons. The slight decrease to 2,498 million tonnes is predicted for 2014 by FAO in July 2014.
Nutritional facts
Some grains lack essential amino acids, lysine. That is why many vegetarian cultures, to get a balanced diet, combine their diet with beans.
However, many legumes lack the essential amino acid methionine, which contains grains. Thus, a combination of nuts with whole grains forms a balanced diet for vegetarians. Common examples of such combinations are dal (lentils) with rice by Indians of South and Bengali, with wheat in Pakistan and North India, and beans with corn tortillas, tofu with rice, and peanut butter with bread wheat (as a sandwich) in some other cultures, including Americans. The amount of crude protein found in grains was measured as a grain-coarse protein concentration.
Cereals contain exogenous opioid peptides called exorphins and include opioid food peptides such as gluten exorphin and opioid food peptides. They mimic the actions of endorphines because they bind to the same opioid receptor in the brain.
Standardization
ISO has published a set of standards on cereal products covered by ICS 67.060.
See also
References
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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