Cultivation patterns of small millets in the tribal belts of Chhattisgarh state: An in-depth study

Abstract

Millet is one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purposes. The study was conducted in Bastar Plateau Zone of Chhattisgarh state. This agro-climatic zone was purposively selected because the maximum area under small millets exists in this agro-climatic zone. Out of Six small millet crops, three important ones were selected and a total of 270 tribal farmers growing them were selected as respondents. The study revealed that a little less than half of the respondents were belonging to small farmers’ category possessing less than one third of total land while nearly one fourth of them belonged to marginal farmers category possessing less than one tenth of the land. Nearly one third of the land was Vertisol (gabhar) while less than one third was Entisol (tikra). Among the three major small millets, little millet was cultivated by nearly 84 per cent of the respondents on 3 per cent of the total Kharif cultivated area. Kodo millet was cultivated by 69 per cent of them on nearly 5 per cent of the land, while finger millet was cultivated by 60 per cent of them on nearly 5 per cent of the cultivated area.