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
