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

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promoting nutrious millets in tamil nadu and orissa 29 showed consistent and significant increase in the yield from improved practices in comparison with yield from traditional practices. The increase in individual trials ranged from 7-83% with mean increase of 37.3%. The little millet varieties Kattavetti Samai in Kolli Hills and OLM 203 in Jeypore performed well across the demonstrations. The results from 8 foxtail millet based demonstrations were in the similar lines with 29.6% average increase in improved practices. The yield data from these trials, apart from demonstrating the strength of improved agronomic practices in enhancing the yield also validated the precision achieved Fig. 8. grain yield of little millet in improved and control plots in the farmer participatory variety selection. 5.6. Increase in income generated from improved agronomy Increase in productivity achieved over traditional practices (TP) which used local varieties (LV) by improved agronomic practices (IP) using farmer selected varieties (FSV) and their quality seeds resulted in either improved availability of nutritious millet grain for home consumption or marketable surplus. A comparison among demonstrations using pure crop of millet and millet-based intercrops showed that the intercrop systems invariably provided higher income, to the tune of 12 - 23%. Almost whole of the produce of all intercrops such as pigeonpea, mustard, black gram, niger, etc. offered cash income, while whole or good share of the millet grains was saved for home consumption. The marketable produce was sold almost immediately in the local market. Cost: benefit analysis of improved practices with farmer selected varieties of finger millet in pure and intercrop systems showed that the pure crop provided, on an average, 51% higher net income (Fig. 9), while the intercrop, on an average, offered 56.5% more income than the traditional practices with local varieties. In the case of intercrop systems, about 48% of the net income was contributed by the companion crops like pigeonpea, although this share widely varied, both due to the yield and cash value of crops used. In actual terms, the additional income generated, on an average, was INR 4,540/ha in the case of finger millet-based intercrop Fig. 9. differences in net return from traditional and improved production practices-representative trials
30 minor millets in south asia and INR 2,733 in the case of pure finger millet crop. In the case of little millet and foxtail millet, the additional income generated from improved agronomic package of practices were 53% and 40.8%, respectively. In actual terms, the additional average net income generated by the improved practices in the little millet-based intercrop was INR 4,605/ha, while the same in the foxtail millet-based intercrop was INR 3,512/ha. In terms of strengthening of food security arising from increased nutritious millet grain productivity contributed by improved agronomic Fig. 10. increased food security contributed by improved agronomy practices, it was 39% in the case of finger millet, 37% in the case of little millet and 31% in the case of foxtail millet (Fig. 10). 6. Development of value chains of nutritious millets 6.1. Reduction of drudgery in processing nutritious millet grains Nutritious millets are neglected in all respects including technology development for grain processing. There is no efficient technology for processing these grains at village level, despite India producing about 2 million tons of these grains. Such lack of technology has been forcing the dependence on traditional methods of grain processing, which are tedious, time consuming and cause of drudgery for women. This is another reason contributing to the decreasing popularity of these grains even among people who had been its traditional consumers. Small millet grains differ in their seed coat structure, particularly with respect to the abrasive force required to remove the seed coat. All except finger millet are covered by tight and hard seed coat, which require intense abrasive action for removal. While finger millet could be directly made to flour in a grinding mill, other grains are to be first dehulled and then polished to make them fit for consumption. The traditional practice of making flour from finger millet in villages is using stone grinder, which is operated by two women (Fig. 11). It requires manually rotating the grinding stone for long time Fig. 11. Women grinding finger millet
Page 2 and 3: Minor Millets in South Asia Learnin
Page 4 and 5: contents iii Contents Foreword v Pr
Page 6 and 7: foreword v Foreword The project,
Page 8 and 9: foreword vii Foreword I extend my c
Page 10 and 11: prefAce ix Preface The small millet
Page 12 and 13: executive suMMAry 1 Executive Summa
Page 14 and 15: executive suMMAry 3 women. Informat
Page 16 and 17: executive suMMAry 5 and seed exchan
Page 18 and 19: executive suMMAry 7 systems. These
Page 20 and 21: executive suMMAry 9 available for s
Page 22 and 23: executive suMMAry 11 dissemination
Page 24 and 25: introduction 13 Introduction Backgr
Page 26 and 27: introduction 15 The project was dev
Page 28 and 29: introduction 17 l Develop value add
Page 30 and 31: promoting nutrious millets in tamil
Page 58 and 59: enhanCing Food seCuritY and inCome
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Food seCuritY and inCome enhanCemen
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staFF inVolVed in implementing iFad
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Chennai platForm For aCtion 179 Ann
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Chennai platForm For aCtion 181 i.
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aCronYms 183 Acronyms ABD : Agricul
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aCronYms 185 PDS : Public Distribut
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Minor millets in South Asia: learnings from IFAD-NUS project in India ...

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