Minor millets get a major boost

Coimbatore: With water becoming a precious commodity, the state agriculture department has taken up an initiative to increase the cultivation of minor millets, which require less water and are also nutritious.
Under the ‘Nutri Cereal Scheme’ of the Centre’s National Food Security Mission, the department will promote minor millets by setting up demonstration farms and providing subsidies to the farmers.
Kambu (pearl millet), kuthiraivaali (horse-tail millet), saamai (little millet), ragi and sorghum are categorised as minor millets. The district agriculture department will focus on sorghum, officials said.
Last year, 150hectares were allotted for the demonstration sorghum farms under the mission. This year it has been increased to 250acres, the highest so far.
Under the scheme, the department would offer subsidy to develop a demo sorghum farm on 1hetare for 250 farmers each. The farmers would be given seeds, fertilisers and wages for preparing the land and sowing, said an official of the agriculture department in-charge for scheme. The package for each beneficiary would cost Rs 6,000.
Awareness about sorghum cultivation among farmers is increasing with the area under sorghum cultivation in the district, the official said. “While five years ago, the average area under sorghum cultivation was around 25,220hectares, last year, the cultivation area reached 30,000hectares. Sorghum can not only be marketed in raw form, self-help groups and farmer-interest groups have been making value-added products such as flour and cookies from sorghum. The stalk of sorghum plant is used as fodder.”
Farmers from the district said the scheme would be of great help to them.
Sorghum cultivated in areas such as S S Kulam in the district have a high demand, especially from big hotels in North India, where they make rotis out of sorghum flour, said V S Kalisamy, a farmer from S S Kulam. “The scheme for sorghum would definitely be of use for farmers in the district’s northern blocks. We hope the scheme reaches the deserving beneficiaries, who have been cultivating and selling the crop,” he told TOI.
For the demo cultivation, the officials will choose the fields which are accessible, visible and cultivated by active farmers. From this year, they would also conduct cropping system-based training for 30 farmers, along with seminars and roadshows on millets.