Yield of Rainfed Finger Millet under Selected Agronomic Practices: A Study in Southern Dry Zone

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