EVALUATION OF TECHNIQUES TO DEVELOP A PACKAGE OF PRACTICES TO ENHANCE THE YIELD OF FINGER MILLET CULTIVATION IN RAIN FED FARMING SYSTEMS - CASE STUDY IN MONARAGALA AND HAMBANTOTA DISTRICTS OF SRI LANKA
The farmers in Sri Lanka are cultivating finger millet under rainfed condition and majority of the farmers practice seed broadcasting for crop establishment. There are improved low cost approaches exsist which able to enhance the yield in a sustainable manner but such techniques are not use at the farmer level in the rainfed farming systems. The yield obtaining by the farmers is very low compared to the research level. To increase the farmer income it was needed to enhance the yield of finger millet by using improved agronomic practices. The main objective of this research was to introduce improved but simple teqniques to the farmers by farmer participatory action researches with the focus of enhance the yield. This study was carried out at rainfed farming system in Thanamalwila District scretory division (DSD) in Monaragala District and Grain Legume and Oil Crops Research and Development Center (GLORDC), Angunakolapelessa in Hambantota district which belongs to DL4 and DL1b Agroecological regions respectively. A systemic survey was carried out in 2013/2014 Maha season to identify the real situation of the area and constraint facing by the farmers. The sampling method was convenient sampling method and 60 farmers who cultivating finger millet were selected as the sample. Four categories of constraints were identified by the survey viz; related to the production, harvesting, post-harvest and marketing of finger millet. The survey revealed the farmer awareness of improved practices to enhance the yield is very low in the area; only 16.7% of farmers are using simple agronomic practices focused on high yield. In the 2nd phase of the research; improved varieties, planting practices, application of fertilizers and methods of weed control were introduced as techniques forcusing enhance the yield to the farmers during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 Maha seasons. Then the sustainable agronomic package of practices (SAPP) was developed, viz; high yielding variety (Rawana), row seeding in 30 cm spacing, application of ½ of basal fertilizers recommended by Department of Agriculture (DOA) in Sri Lanka combined with compost ( 2M ha-1) and 2 weed removals at 3 and 6 weeks from planting. The developed SAPP was tested and compared with traditional farmer practice during 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 Maha seasons in the farmer fields. In the 2016/2017 Maha season, the yield increased when using SAPP by 36.4% to 89% and in the 2017/2018 Maha season it was 43.4% to102.3% compared to the yield to the farmer practice at the farmer field experiments and were considerably higher compared to the estimated average yield for finger millet (1.3 Mt ha-1) in Sri Lanka in 2018. The results evidenced using SAPP could enhance the yield of finger millet cultivation in the areas covered by this research.
Key words: Rain fed finger millet cultivation, agronomic practices, improved technologies,
enhance yield
