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Title : Successful cultivation of fox tail millet crop preceding bengalgram in black soils of Ananthapuramu district

Name of the farmer- G.Sreenivas

Village – Gannevaripalli

Mandal – Tadipatri

Disrtict - Ananthapuramu

1. Situation analysis/Problem statement: Anantapuram district is a drought prone area of which majority of land is rainfed.  It is essentially an arid, drought-prone and entirely agrarian economy. In agriculture the main constraint is lack of irrigation facilities. Most of the families of the district belong to farming community. Due to low rainfall, income from the crops is very low, sometimes negligible. An innovative farmer Sri. G. Sreenivas of Gannevaripalli village of Tadipatri mandal was growing only bengalgram during Rabi season keeping kharif as fallow under the rainfed conditions. The farmer, Sri. G.Sreenivas is a farmer by his profession. He along with his father used to cultivate 13 acres of land, in which they used to grow cowpea, bengalgram, redgram, sunflower and fodder jowar. By keeping kharif season as fallow he is facing weed problem, soil loss by wind and water erosion and high pest and disease incidence because of continuous monocropping. Later with the intervention of KVK, Reddipalli, he understood the importance of millets especially short duration fox tail millet variety Garuda (SiA-3222). Millets are short duration crops. Millets are termed as the ‘miracle grains’ or ‘crops of the future’ as they cannot only grow under harsh circumstances but are drought-resistant crops that require fewer external inputs. Millets are dual-purpose crops. It is cultivated both as food & fodder, thus providing food/livelihood. Millets require less fertilizer and pesticides thus less cost of cultivation. These benefits attracted Sri. G. Sreenivas in growing short duration millets especially fox tail millet as preceding crop to bengalgram.

2. Plan, Implement and Support: After the successful completion of on-farm trials on fox tail millet (SiA-3222)+ Bengalgram (NBeG-452) at RARS, Nandyal, same was introduced at Sri. G.Sreenivas field at Gannevaripali by KVK, Reddipalli in 2021. SiA-3222 and NBeG-452 seed was distributed to the farmer’s by KVK Reddipalli. SiA-3222 was grown in kharif season and NBeg-452 was grown in rabi season. Need based training and literature were given by KVK, Reddipalli. A high yielding bengalgram variety NBeG-452 has been introduced in place of farmer’s practice JG-11. The fox tail millet variety Garuda is a short duration variety (60-62 days) with a yield potential of 15-18 q/ha which is resistant to blast and NBeG-452 has a duration of 90-105 days with a potential yield of 18- 20 q/ha which is resistant to wilt. NBeG-452 is suitable for machine harvesting. The farmer’s practice variety JG-11 is an early maturing variety with a duration of 95-100 days resistant to fusarium wilt. It has a yield potential of 18-19 q/ha and not suitable for machine harvest.

3. Output: During the kharif season Sri. G.Sreenivas has cultivated fox tail millet (SiA-3222) and obtained an yield of 1175 kg/ha and net income of 16100 Rs/ha with a B:C ratio of 2.21 during first season. In the second year of front line demonstration SiA-3222 observed an yield of 1040 kg/ha with a monetary benefit of Rs.8350/ha and B:C ratio of 1.47. During the first year bengalgram equivalent yield of 1312 kg/ha as against farmer’s practice of JG-11 variety (725 kg/ha) whereas in second year bengalgram equivalent yield of 2497 kg/ha was observed. An additional income of Rs. 16100/ha and Rs.8350/ha was noticed during first and second year, respectively by growing fox tail millet preceding bengalgram.

Yield and economics fox tail preceding bengalgram in 2021-2022 (1^st year)

Yield and economics fox tail preceding bengalgram in 2022-2023 (2^nd year)

4. Outcome: After seeing Sri. G.Sreenivas results, many farmer’s from the Gannevaripalli village are interested in following foxtail millet as preceding crop to bengalgram. The technology is spread from 10 farmers in Gannevaripalli to 100 farmers in the village. The myth of growing a crop before bengalgram crop will results in yield loss of bengalgram was broken by Sri. G.Sreenivas. The problems like degradation of soil fertility, weed problem and pest and disease incidence was reduced as a result of this technology. An awareness started among the farmers to grow fox tail millet preceding bengalgram. This technology can be adopted in all the black soils of Ananthapuramu district where kharif is kept fallow.

5. Impact: Farmer Sri. G.Sreenivas is very confident in introducing any type of technology after gaining the success in cropping sequence. He also started creating awareness on short duration fox tail millet cultivation among other farmers. Production of fox tail millet lead to the opening of new millet processing units at Tadipatri and KVK, Reddipalli in view of the increased production and demand for millets.

KVK staff visit to fox tail millet (SiA-3222) field

KVK staff visit to bengalgram NBeG-452 field

Organising field day in bengalgram NBeG-452 field

Harvested produce of SiA-3222 in farmer’s field