Economics and Adoption Trends of Millet crop in Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam, India

Abstract

In India, Millets were among the first crops to be domesticated. In Nagaon district cultivating area of millet is 1586 ha with the productivity of 4.5q/ha per hectare out of total 2287 sq km geographical area. Millets are a group of small-seeded grains that included various types like peral millet, foxtail millet and finger millet cultivated for thousands of years in many parts of the world. It is obvious that millets could be grown at cheaper cost compared to other crops as these are hardy and less water requirement and weed management to grow ultimately reducing cost of production with an increase in small farmer’s income in marginalized region. The study was conducted in Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam comprising of two districts viz., Nagaon and Hojai.  covering 200 numbers of millet growers. It was revealed that on an average grain yield was 5.70 q/ha with return income of Rs. 35570.00 /ha and straw yield was 3.4 q/ha with return of Rs. 2500.00/ha. It was also seen that return over variable cost was 1.81 among the sample farm. Further, it was observed that many constraints were faced by the millet growers. The constraints were divided into 3 major parts i.e., Technical Constraints, Economic Constraints and Storage and Marketing Constraints, Majority of the sample farmers reported lack of processing facilities (85.00 %) as their major constraints followed by animal intervention in the crop field as reported by 77.80 percent of the respondent farmers.