Citing high labour cost & low prices, farmers turn away from millets

Sachin Gove has systematically reduced his jowar (sorghum) farming area in the last few years. A farmer from the town of Mangalvedha in Solapur district’s taluka by the same name, Gove used to grow millets over his entire 30 acres of holding a few years back. Since then, however, he has diversified into cultivating other crops such as safflower and chana.

Once considered the cradle of jowar cultivation in the state, farmers like Gove are increasingly moving away from growing this crop and the reasons are simple. “Low realisation and high dependence of manual labour is making this crop non viable for us,” said Gove, who has reduced his jowar acreage to just 15 acres, which, too, he says is difficult to handle. Most farmers, in this jowar belt of Maharashtra are having serious second thoughts about cultivating millets which once was the staple, both in terms of local diet and in the fields.

Millet growers across the country have started diversifying to other crops although both the central and the state government have announced a sub-mission to popularise the cultivation of millets. Known as a powerhouse of nutrients, millets like jowar, bajra and nachni used to be the staple diet locally but have now been pushed out of the plates thanks to the availability of wheat and rice. A renewed interest in millets notwithstanding, growers have turned their backs to this crop. In Maharashtra, the outlook for millets looks grim even for the upcoming kharif season. The state agriculture department has forecast 9 lakh hectares of millet area as compared to the normal 12.52 lakh hectares.