The cultivation of coarse grains, particularly minor millets, is on the verge of disappearance from the crop diversity map of Telangana which boasted of a wide variety till not so long ago, thanks to lack of encouragement from the government and low support price even as they remain high on the list of “fashion foods”.
Keeping aside maize, which is now being cultivated as a cash crops in the region, even the cultivation of major millets such as sorghum (jowar-jonnalu), pearl millet (bajra-sajjalu), finger millet (ragi-ragulu/taidalu) is on the sharp decline in the State in the recent years.
According to the statistics of the Agriculture Department, there has been no cultivation of even ragi this year, although it was cultivated in at least 1,000 hectares till last year.
As their cultivation is going down, the prices of millets is on the rise in the retail markets.
The price of major millets range from Rs.25 to Rs.40 per kg, while minor millets including foxtail millet (korralu), little millet (samalu) and others are in the range of Rs.120 to Rs.200 per kg.
“Cultivation of millets in the erstwhile Hyderabad State area, including parts of North Karnataka and South-East Maharashtra, was on in considerable extent till the early 1990s but the changing lifestyles and food habits have taken a heavy toll on the highly nutritious and non-acid forming foods crops,” a scientist of the Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University said.
Reduced or nil consumption of minor millets and lack of minimum support price in the markets have forced the farmers to give up on them.
“Many of the present generation even in villages do not know about minor millets as nobody cultivates them. The people who knew about the nutritious values of minor millets used to suggest that we cultivate them but after their passing away nobody talks about them,” explained Shantappa, a farmer near Gangwar in Sangareddy district.
When contacted, Agriculture Department officials stated that minimum support price for bajra has been fixed at Rs.1,330 per quintal and that of ragi at Rs.1,725 per quintal.
“It is pittance compared to the low yields the minor millets give, unlike the high-yielding major millets such as maize and jowar,” Ramulu, a farmer near Nemlimet village stated adding that there would be no takers at all for cultivation of these crops in the coming years until an awareness was generated on their consumption and remunerative price was ensured for their production.
