As manufacturers of Finger Millet ( Eleusine coracana ), it is commonly known as Ragi, is an annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal crop in the arid and semiard areas in Africa and Asia. It is a tetraploid and self-pollinating species probably evolved from its wild relative Eleusine africana.
Finger Millet has favorable micronutrient contents (high iron and methionine content in particular) and a very long storage time of the grains. The nutritional value of Finger Millet (Ragi) malt is traditionally considered to be higher than that of the raw grain. This has been studied to be scientifically true in that the bio availability / absorb-ability of the nutrients increases with sprouting. It has thirty times as much calcium as rice, more than ten times as much fiber and so on.