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K.V. Kurmanath

Udityal (Mahboobnagar, AP), Nov. 11 Mr Sevya Naik, 25, inherited a plot of 3.5 acres in Raghavapur where sorghum is mostly grown. He has not just inherited the land.

He inherited a centuries-old practice of growing the crop — doing literally nothing after sowing the seeds.

As a result, he would end up getting just four-five bags (400-500 kg) of the grain — hardly sufficient to feed the family, forget about additional income.

His is not an isolated case. For several small farmers in this part, sorghum is a neglected crop, thanks to the excessive focus on rice in the public distribution system and lack of extension support.

Scientists at Icrisat (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), who have launched an intervention programme in sorghum and pearl millet, have said the situation is more or less similar in several Asian countries.

“Production of sorghum and pearl millet is declining for the last 20 years in these countries due to a variety of reasons that includes changes in consumer preferences,” Dr Ch. Ravinder Reddy, a scientist with Icrisat, told Business Line. “If we can increase productivity, we can use it as food, poultry feed and raw material for brewing. This would mean huge incomes for the farmers with minimal investments,” he said.

Dr Reddy leads a global programme backed by Icrisat, Common Fund for Commodities (CFC, the Netherlands), and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation to bring back sorghum and pearl millet onto the menu of the poor.

Launched in five locations in China, Thailand and India, the programme is aimed at providing linkages between the farmers and banks, poultry feed manufacturers and input suppliers.

“We will be completing four years of intervention in December 2008. We have been successful in doubling the productivity from 5-6 bags earlier to 12 bags,” he said.

The Icrisat-FAO-CFC alliance helped the local farmers form an association and set up a godown to process and store the grain.

“We have a membership of 300 farmers. For the first time, we got loans (from SBI) for growing sorghum. The company (feed manufacturers) people have directly came to the godown and paid us Rs 670 a quintal as against Rs 470 earlier,” Mr K. Anand Chari, Chairman of Sri Ramalingeswara Rythu Samakhya (affiliated the Federation of Farmers’ Associations), said.

Dr Ravinder Reddy said the team identified that the farmers were not at all bothered to do it right.

“They would buy the seed and blindly go for the sowing, knowing little about the dose of fertilisers,” he said.

“By doing pest management in the initial 15-30 day period and top-dressing the crop with nitrogen there after, they could arrest 50 per cent of the losses,” he said.

Now that the programme is coming to end, the association is confident of continuing the effort further.

“Though it ends, the institute plans to keep in touch with at least two farmers in each village to sort out issues, if any,” Dr Reddy said.

More Stories on : Agricultural Institutions

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