Divisi
How to grow Fonio
Digitaria exilis · Poaceae
Photo: KAG1LP2MDIAKITE · CC BY-SA 4.0
Fonio (Digitaria exilis) — also called acha, hungry rice, findi or fundi — is West Africa's ancient small grain and the fastest cereal in the world: early types give grain in about 70 to 85 days, some in as little as 6 to 8 weeks. It is a short, tufted grass whose seed is dust-fine — about 2,000 seeds in a single gram. Fonio asks almost nothing of the land: it grows on poor, sandy ground where maize or sorghum would starve, needs little or no fertiliser, and ripens fast enough to feed a family in the hungry season — the weeks before the main crops come in. Its one real burden comes after harvest: the tiny grain is slow and tiring to thresh and de-hull. (This guide is for white fonio; black fonio, Digitaria iburua, is a different crop.)
Richard Nyberg, USAID · Public domain 
Crop Trust · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Days to maturity
- 60–120 days
These are general figures for the crop, compiled from published agronomic references including FAO and CABI. The right choice for your field depends on your soil, rainfall and the yield you are aiming for.
Will fonio actually do well on your land? Check your field against every crop in the catalogue — free, no signup. Run the free crop check →
Other names for Fonio
fini · fonio · acha · hungry rice · findi · fundi
Working in buckets, bags or paces? The farming glossary turns the measures growers actually use into kilograms and hectares — what a 20 litre bucket of each crop really weighs, and how to size a field by walking it — alongside the Shona, Swahili, Ndebele and Yoruba words used in the field. Open the glossary →
Growing fonio, stage by stage
Your fonio season, step by step: make a fine, level bed on poor land, scatter the dust-fine seed evenly and barely cover it, weed early (the single biggest job), guard water at flowering, then race the birds and the shattering to a fast harvest — and thresh, de-hull and dry the grain so none is lost.
- A fine seedbed on poor land
- Sow and get an even stand
- Grow clean — win the weeding
- Flowering — guard water and grain
- Fill the grain, beat the birds
- Harvest fast, before it shatters
- Thresh, de-hull and store
10 step-by-step tasks in the app
Every task for fonio — what to do, when to do it and why it matters — with the amounts worked out for your own field, reminders as each one falls due, and warnings before extreme weather.
Pests and diseases that attack fonio
Divisi tells you which of these is a risk on your fonio right now, when to walk the field looking for it, and what to do the moment you find it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does fonio take to grow?
Fonio takes about 60–120 days from sowing to maturity, though the exact length varies with variety, temperature and how the season runs.
What pests and diseases attack fonio?
The ones covered in this guide are Grasshoppers, Leaf spot, Smut. Each has its own page explaining how to identify, scout for and control it.
Grow fonio with a plan, not a guess
Divisi turns this guide into a dated plan for your own field — what to do each week, reminders as tasks fall due, and warnings before extreme weather. Free for farmers, works offline.
Or check your field first