RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

Pearl Millet in Indian Agriculture
G. Harinarayana 1
Abstract
Pearl millet is the fourth most important cereal food crop in India As a semi-arid and arid crop, it is
traditionally a component of the dryland system, usually grown in soils with depleted fertility which receive
150-750 mm of rainfall per year.
Pearl millet was grown on 9.5% of the food-grain area and yielded 4.8% of Indian food-grain
production during 1965-84. Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh accounted for nearly
80% of 11.79 million ha and 70% of 5.25 million t of grain.
Traditional farming practices include the use of locally-adapted varieties with poor productivity, little
application of manures and chemical fertilizers, minimum tillage, and limited intercropping operations.
Nutritionally superior to rice and wheat, pearl millet is commonly used to make unleavened bread, thin or
thick porridge, or may be cooked like rice.
The major factors that restrict the production potential of pearl millet are low hybrid coverage, slow
varietal spread, poor plant establishment, no fertilization, weeds, and diseases. Some suggested remedial
measures to increase production include: diversification of male-sterile lines, improvement of restorers,
breeding heterogeneous and heterozygous single- and multicross hybrids for combating the twin problems of
low yield and diseases, identification of sugary, yellow-, and white-grained pearl millets, and selection for
drought resistance, efficient water use, efficient nitrogen utilization, salt and mineral tolerance, and disease
resistance.
Millet is a staple food crop of India, a crop that has inherited the drought-prone, semi-arid, and arid
areas of the world, but is also ideally adapted to irrigated farming, making it a potential world food grain.
Pearl millet also stabilizes the food basket: increased production opens new possibilities of alternative food
uses which can release rice and wheat for direct consumption through product substitution. The production
potential of pearl millet has not been commercially exploited, and has so far been restricted to the use of
improved seeds. Given quality seeds, small amounts of fertilizer, good cultural management, water
harvesting, price support, and assured procurement, pearl millet production could increase many-fold and
become stabilized at higher levels.
1. Project Director, All India Coordinated Millets Improvement Project, College of Agriculture, Shivajinagar, Pune 411 005, India.
ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics). 1987. Proceedings of the International Pearl Millet
Workshop, 7-11 April 1986, ICRISAT Center, India. Patancheru, A.P. 502324, India: ICRISAT.
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