Minor millets in South Asia: learnings from IFAD-NUS project in India ...

Food seCuritY and inCome generation through Finger millet CultiVation in nepal 129
growing white grained local finger millet landraces. Though white grained finger
millet (Samadhi Kodo) fetches high price, it was not common in the community due
to lower yield in comparison to other landraces. In fact, this landrace was observed
to be endangered and thus was included in the seed production programme for its
conservation through utilization. The food made out of white grained finger millet
was considered socially prestigious and hence named as Samdhi Kodo .
7. Improved agronomic practices
Finger millet relayed with maize is a predominant cropping system in the upland
of the mid-hills (Shakya, 2002), while in lower river basin, it is mostly cultivated
as mono-crop. It is grown under completely rainfed production system under
residual fertility condition. Very few farmers apply urea as top dressing in finger
millet on the road side locations whereas in the remote areas, the hill farmers
do not apply chemical fertilizers and apply only compost/farm yard manure
(FYM). Following experiments were designed and conducted in the project site to
raise the productivity of the crop, viz: (i) study on the comparative economy of
finger millet based production systems under rainfed condition at Tallo Pipaltar
in Nuwakot district, (ii) density-cum-fertilizer study in finger millet, (iii) studies
on method of nitrogen application and crop density on finger millet yield under
maize-millet system, and (iv) comparative study on performance of improved
and local varieties under improved and local cultivation practices. The outcome
from these studies is reported in the following sections:
7.1. Finger millet based production systems under rainfed conditions
A comparative study on economy of finger millet based production system under
rainfed conditions was undertaken at Tallo Pipaltar in Nuwakot district. Local
landraces of finger millet (Chaure), black gram (Kalo), horsegram and sesame
were used in this experiment. The experiment was conducted considering finger
millet as main summer crop and sesame as the competitive crop of finger millet
in the rainfed production system. Farmers’ practice of mixing black gram and/or
horsegram with finger millet was considered in designing the experiment to study
the comparative economy. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete
block design (RCBD) with four replications and the plot size for each treatment was
3 m x 2 m. About 35-40 days old finger millet seedlings were transplanted in each
plot. Before transplanting, the seed of all legumes were broadcasted as per farmers’
need or according to local practice. It was considered that residual compost applied
to maize was also utilized by finger millet crop. Chemical fertilizers were applied
at the rate of 40:30:20: N, P, K kg /ha for all treatments. All the phosphorous and
potash and 50% of nitrogen was applied at the time of land preparation, while 50%
nitrogen was top dressed after 35 days of transplanting. In case of sole legumes, all
the chemical fertilizers were applied at the time of planting. MSTATC programme
was used for data analysis.