Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Integration of Millet Crops in Rice Fallow Ecology for System
Intensification
U. Triveni, Y. S. Rani, N. Anuradha and T.S.S.K. Patro
T6-36P-1376
Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University, Agricultural Research Station, Vizianagaram, Andhra
Pradesh 535 001
Increase in food grain production is essential for feeding the current global population.
However, increase in crop area is not possible due to various issues like environmental
concerns, urbanization, industrialization, salinization, etc. Hence crop intensification in the
existing land area is the only option to increase the food grain production in India. Rice fallow
lands are low land rainfed rice growing areas which remain fallow during winter season. These
lands have enormous scope for crop intensification by integrating pulses and oil seeds. In India,
11.7 M.ha of rice fallow land is available across various states (Ali et al., 2014). Chhattisgarh
has 35% (4.1 Mha) of rice fallow land Odisha and Madhya Pradesh together have 15% (1.8 M
ha). Southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana together have 7.38 M ha
rice fallow land (Gumma et al., 2016). Millets have a greater scope for crop intensification
because of their shorter duration, low moisture requirement, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance.
Moreover, Southern and Central India contributed to most millet area and production in the
country. Hence, introduction of short duration millet crops in the existing rice fallow lands
would greatly contribute not only to increased millet grain production but also to increased
nutritional security.
Methodology
An experiment was conducted during rabi, 2021-22 at Agricultural Research Station,
Vizianagaram with an aim to test the feasibility of eight different millet crops for growing
under rice fallow lands. The millet crops (sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, foxtail millet,
barnyard millet, brown top millet, kodo millet and little millet) were tested in randomized block
design with three replications. NPK nutrients were applied as per crop recommendations. A
spacing of 22.5cm × 10cm was adopted for all the crops except for pearl millet and sorghum,
where 45cm × 10cm was used. Observations on growth and yield attributes and grain yield
were collected at the time of maturity and data analysis was done by using ANOVA.
Results
Experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of different millet crops under ricefallows
revealed that all the millet crops adopted very well in rice fallow lands. However, the
sorghum grain yield was higher. This was followed by millet yields (Fig). Among other millets,
the grain yield of finger millet, pearl millet, foxtail millet and kodo millet were also higher. Per
Institutional and policy innovations for accelerated and enhanced impacts
880 | Page