Abstract
The farmers in Southern dry zone in Sri Lanka are cultivating finger millet mostly under rainfed condition and majority of them practice random broadcasting for crop establishment. The yield obtained by the conventional rainfed farmers is considerably lower. Already there are available a number of improved low cost approaches can enhance the yield in a sustainable manner but such techniques are not used by the farmers in the rainfed farming systems. This study was carried out to enhance the finger millet yield by introducing some agronomic practices with a high yielding variety (Rawana), row seeding in 30 cm spacing, application of half of basal fertilizers recommended by Department of Agriculture (DOA) in Sri Lanka, with compost at the rate of 2 Mg ha-1 and practicing two weeding at third and sixth weeks from planting. Sustainable Agronomic Package of Practices (SAPP) was developed during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 Maha seasons. Then farmer field demonstrations were conducted during 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 Maha seasons and developed SAPP was compared with traditional farmer practice. Results revealed that the yield can be increased by 165% to 182% by following SAPP with transplanting and sowing at 30 cm spacing compared to the yield to the farmer practice and it was 200% and 220% respectively compared to the estimated average finger millet yield of 1.3 Mg ha-1 in Sri Lanka.
Highlights
Finger millet is a continuously grown crop in every Maha season under rainfed farming systems in Sri Lanka
A number of low cost approaches are existing to address the problems of soil fertility, water management and plant protection in a sustainable manner but they are not to be exploited for conditions experienced by small farmers (Monje and Raizada 2011)
Liyanage et al (2015) reported that, there are four categories of constraints faced by finger millet farmers which are production, harvest, post-harvest and marketing related constraints and the farmer awareness and use of improved practices to enhance the yield is very low in Southern dry zone, only 16.7% of farmers are using simple agronomic practices focused on high yield
Summary
Finger millet is a continuously grown crop in every Maha season under rainfed farming systems in Sri Lanka. It is grown without using organic or inorganic fertilizers under rainfed condition. The degradation of soil properties due to continuous cultivation in same lands resulted in decreasing the productivity of crops It has caused less farmer income for rain fed finger millet cultivation. Finger millet is a crop belongs to family Poaceae, it has been identified as a promising crop that can survive well in drought prone environment It assures income for farmers even under the frequent situations of drought in the dry zone. It is needed to improve farmer awareness of available technologies and innovations. Liyanage et al (2015) reported that, there are four categories of constraints faced by finger millet farmers which are production, harvest, post-harvest and marketing related constraints and the farmer awareness and use of improved practices to enhance the yield is very low in Southern dry zone, only 16.7% of farmers are using simple agronomic practices focused on high yield
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