ARS, Tornala organized a Field day on “ Cultivation of Millets” at Bussapur village, Siddipet dist. on 05-11-2019

A Field day on “Cultivation of Millets” was organized by Ms. D. Sravanthi, Scientist (Agro.), ARS, Tornala and Dr. A.V. Ramanjaneyulu, Sr. Scientist (Agro.) & Head, at Bussapur village, Siddipet ® mandal, Siddipet district. Mr. K. Shadashiva Reddy, Sarpanch and host farmer Sri.P.Srinivas and 20 farmers from the village have participated in this programme. Mrs. D. Sravanthi has explained in detail about cultivation of millets under rainfed conditions. She added that millets namely Bajra and Ragi are under rainfed conditions as they resist drought and yield better than maize. She also added that millets are due to less nutrient requirement, pests and diseases require less cost of cultivation thus profitable than maize. Dr. A.V. Ramanjaneyulu has explained about role and importance of millets in human diet. He stated that farmers of Siddipet have been cultivating maize crop in a larger area than other crops and often running into losses due to crop failure following dryspells at critical stages. Hence, farmers of Siddipet district have to shift from maize to millets during kharif season. Host farmer Mr. P. Srinivas has shared his experience to other farmers in cultivation of millets stating that it involves less labour thus low cost of cultivation than maize crop. Participant farmers expressed that they are ready to cultivate millets but stated that marketing and processing are the main problems.