Biofortified Pearl Millet Varieties for Sustainable Agriculture among farming community in Theni District, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum-Bajra) is a unique and important nutri cereal for food and nutritional security and drought-tolerant coarse-grain cereal. Pearl Millet offers a plethora of health benefits and is also good for the environment with low water and input requirements for production. The present study was framed to assess the suitable biofortied Pearl millet variety under rainfed situation in Theni District and its nutritional security, and farmer revenue. The primary objective of the trial was to evaluate newly released different biofortified varieties, technologies, management practices and post-harvest management at farmers’ fields under real farming situations under different agroclimatic regions. The On-farm trial was conducted during Kharif season, to study the performance of different short-duration and high-yielding Biofortified pearl millet varieties for sustainable Agriculture in rainfed regions of Theni District. Randomized Block Design (RBD) was used to arrange the experimental plot in five replications with Dhanasakthi, ABV 04 and CO10 biofortified pearl millet varieties. The recommended cultivation practices were followed during the trail period. As part of the study, training cum method demonstration was conducted on different storage techniques. Need based skill trainings cum method demonstrations were conducted to 60 farmers. Experiments results relvealed that Dhanasakthi variety matured on 81 days followed by ABV 04 (83.66 days). The Pearl millet variety CO10 matured on 91.16 days. The greater number of productive tillers (6.36) was recorded in CO10 variety followed by 5.7 in ABV 04. The highest panicle length was recorded (40.90 cm) in CO10 followed by Dhanasakthi (29.33 cm). The highest yield was recorded in CO10 (33.64 q/ha) followed by ABV 04. Regarding the Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR), CO10 recorded 4.31 followed by ABV 04 (2.79). The study conclude that CO10 Pearl millet variety is highly adopted by the farmers compared to two other varieties. Regarding storage technique, They prefer to store the grains by sand layer technology and pepper seed powder in IRRI Bag. The farmers gained knowledge on value chain management from 48-70 percentage. This knowledge and skills on value chain management of biofortified pearl millet varieties would help them to get an idea to start entrepreneur units in their villages for sustainable income generation.