TIRUCHY: Farmers said it would be difficult to double millet cultivation without a comprehensive policy and assured marketing opportunities.
Reacting to the budget proposal tabled by agriculture minister R Vinoth’s statement on Thursday that cultivation of millets and minor millets mission would be increased under the millet and minor millet missions at Rs 71.42 crore, farmers said the government should first establish millet and cereal processing facilities so that they would be encouraged to cultivate on a larger scale.
C Yoganathan, managing director of a farmers producer organisation (FPO) in Musiri, said there was no adequate facility to market millets whereas the government directly procures paddy from farmers.
“Since millet and minor millet cultivation is labour-intensive, farmers have to spend more on wages and other input costs such as seeds and fertilisers. Individual farmers are also unable to access loans from banks. There are no machinery for processing millets, including threshing, husking and grading in larger level. Consequently, farmers are forced to carry out these processes manually and sell their produce at low prices to private traders,” he said. M Panneerselvam, a millet farmer from Thandalaiputhur, told TNIE that although millets require less water than paddy, they still need irrigation at least once a week. “I used to cultivate millets on five acres using borewell irrigation. This year, I skipped cultivation because groundwater table has fallen drastically,” he said.
S Ganapathi, a farmer from Thuraiyur, said despite the challenges involved in millet cultivation, more farmers would cultivate if there were assured marketing facilities. “The government can procure millets directly from us and supply them to hospitals for patients, include them in school nutrition programmes, and distribute them through fair price shops. Such measures would encourage a large number of farmers to take up millet cultivation,” he added.