Agri dept to promote cultivation of sorghum, little millet in dist

Coimbatore: In a bid to promote millet cultivation, the agriculture department plans to develop 255 hectares of demonstration plots in the district this year.
Sorghum and little millet (saamai) will be featured in the district this year, said an official. Farmers will be given seeds, biofertilisers and funds to prepare fields.
The department will distribute 29.5 tonnes of high-yielding varieties of sorghum seeds. The demo plots will be set up in visible and accessible farms of active farmers in all the 12 blocks of the district to create awareness.
For each hectare of the demo plots, farmers will be given Rs 6,000 as subsidy. Other subsidy components under the scheme include micro nutrients for integrated nutrient management, biofertilisers, bioagents, weedicides for integrated pest management and farm implements and equipment such as manual sprayer.
In 2018, as much as 150 hectares were allotted for developing demonstration sorghum plots. Last year, it was increased to 250 hectares. This year, along with 230 hectares of sorghum demonstration plots, 25 hectares of little millet plots will be formed.
The nutri-cereals scheme in the district, under the national food security mission, has been allotted a fund of Rs 51.34lakh this year. “As millets require lesser water and maintenance, can be cultivated throughout the year and provide more nutrition, we are promoting them as a viable option for farmers,” said the official. “The scheme is already underway in the district. Block-level work has started and we have been identifying fields to form demonstration plots. So far we distributed 2.2 tonnes of sorghum seeds to farmers.”
Farmers can sell the millets or make value-added products such as cookies and market them.