Background – what was the drive behind the new development

Rice was the main crop grown in the Madurai District of Tamil Nadu, India. Due to the problem of inadequate irrigation water due to ground water depletion, farmers started giving up rice. Millet is highly suitable for promotion as an alternative crop in climate change era for the food
and nutritional security. With the intervention of ICAR Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), the activities on millet technologies in terms of location specific sustainable land use systems to convert rice growing areas to millet growing areas was taken. At present the production of millets is increased and estimated at all time high levels in this region.

 

Millets grown at Madurai include finger millet (Eleusine coracana), pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) foxtail or Italian millet (Setaria italica), kodos millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), common or proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), little millet (Panicum sumatrense), and barnyard or sawa millet (Echinochloautilis). But the farmers are not really benefitted of it because of the disrupt rate they get on selling millets to middlemen’s or directly to processers. KVK created awareness to farmers on secondary agriculture of millets...Read more