Magical Hands of a Tribal Farmer Set a Milestone in Finger Millet Cultivation-A Case from Koraput, Odisha, India

irrigated pulses and oil seed crops The primary Abstract The nutritious millets traditionally occupied substantial part of the diets and cropping systems in tribal areas of Odisha. Millets require less water and are more resilient to climate vulnerability. They can also be cultivated on the undulating terrain. Reduction in millets resulted in nutrition deficiency. In order to address growing crop failures and nutritional issues, millets need to be revived. Majority of the farmers in Koraput district of Odisha are tribal, resources poor and mostly dependent on onset of monsoon for agriculture. The rainfall in this region is erratic and prolonged drought conditions are common occurrences. Numbers of rainy days were decreased over the period of time. Millets being climate resilient crops systems, revival of millets will enhance resilience of the farming systems and household food security against Climate Change. Finger millet is the second staple food after rice. Area under millets is drastically declining resulting in narrowing of the food diversity in consumption at household level. Increasing urban demand, improvements in processing machinery, availability of improved cultivars, better agronomic practices and possibility of accessing support irrigation has increased the potential of realizing higher productivity in millets thereby improving nutrition security, resilience and economic security of tribal households. The farmers were cultivating many traditional varieties in the past, but now have changed to improved varieties because the traditional varieties continuously perform low in terms of productivity due to mixture of seeds, loss of purity and long duration. This paper analyses how a tribal family set a milestone in finger millet by adopting improved agronomic and good agricultural practices (Figure 1).

source of income is from Agriculture whereas secondary source from agriculture labourer and daily wages. Kharif is the major cropping season where farmers cultivate cereals, millets and pulses.
In Rabi season few pulses crops, oil seed crops and vegetables are being cultivated and majority of the farmers migrated in search of wage labourer both within the district and outside the district. The majority of farmers hold less than one hectare of land in the district and generally practice subsistence farming. Rice is the major crop cultivated in the district in Kharif and also in Rabi where irrigation facilities available. Traditional farm practices are followed in upland resulting in low level of production. In the non-agriculture season NTFP like kendu leaf, tamarind, Mohua and Sal seeds are the source of income. Koraput was recognized as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by FAO in 2012 for the efforts of the community in biodiversity conservation, food security, preserving the traditional wisdom and cultural diversity of the region for the benefit of the present and future generations (Figures 4-6).       Koraput is a tribal dominated district in Odisha consisting of more than 70% small and marginal farmers and 83% of population live in Below Poverty Line (Anonymous, 2013). The most dominant tribes in this proposed operational area are Bhumia, Gadaba, Paroja and Kandha. Subsistence farming still remains their main source of livelihood, supplemented by forest collection and earning wages [1]. The tribal income is mainly based on agriculture and forest products. The per capita income of the district is Rs 25161/ annum (source: Odisha Economic Survey 2014-15). Though the district is rich in biological resources, experienced & hard working farming communities, existence of Women Self Help Groups and the standard of living is quite low due to poor farm productivity, lack of village level small scale industries, low level of technological knowhow and lack of market knowledge.

Materials and Methods
Hari and Gori used to cultivate finger millet in one acre of land following traditional practices. They used to follow broadcasting method. Weeding also was a very tedious task for them. They used to harvest 2.5 to 3.0 quintals from it. During last Kharif MSSRF implemented the seed production programme in the village. They were trained on various improved agronomic practices and System of Millet Intensification (SMI) method of cultivation such as -land preparation, FYM application, seed treatment, raised bed nursery preparation, transplanting in SMI method, organic manure and bio pesticides preparation and application, use of cycle weeder for weeding etc. Shri and Smt. Sukia were provided with 500 grams of breeder seed of KMR-204 variety to cultivate in half acre land. Initially they were little bit scared [2]. So, they decided to try in half acre and the rest half acre they cultivated their own variety Bati Mandia following traditional method. They followed all the recommended agronomic practices stated above and also followed organic way of cultivation. They also prepared NPM like Amrut jal, jeebamrut, handi kahata etc. and applied in their millet field in every 15 days interval after weeding using cycle weeder which helped in plant growth and controlling pests and diseases (Figures 9 & 10).

Study Design
A case study

Duration of study
June 2018 to December 2019

Results and Discussions
Despite the un-conducive weather condition during last kharif season, the crop performed very well. There were productive tillers in a range of 8 to 25 per hill. An average finger per panicle was around 9 which is higher than that of other farmers cultivating same variety (Table 1). Hari and his wife were very happy and surprised to see the crop performance of the new improved variety in comparison to her own traditional variety. They yielded 3.4 quintals/ acre from their own variety of bati mandia following traditional practices and 20.55 quintals/ acre from the improved variety i.e. KMR-204 following SMI method and improved cultivation practices (Table 2 & 3). They never dreamt of getting such a bumper yield from the improved variety. Now she is convinced that she will use the seeds of this variety in coming years and also say others to follow the same practice. She sold the foundation seeds of 400 kg @ Rs 40/per kg and shared around 250 kg to her relatives for seed purpose and remaining grains she kept for own consumption ( Figure 11). The cultivation cost was around Rs 6200/-INR for half acre. The net benefit she got after meeting all the cost of cultivation was Rs. 27,400/-INR from the same land of half acre (Table 4-6).

Conclusion
The study clearly reveals that millet is not a poor man's crop. If it is cultivated with proper care in up or medium land following improved agronomic practices, it can compete with any other crop and produce good yield with very low input cost of cultivation.
Inclusion and promotion of modern technological intervention like SMI is an advantage to the finger millet. So, it is proved that millet cultivation can be a viable alternative and sustainable option for the rural poor. Moreover, it is eco-friendly and improves food security and enhances economic growth. She is now a role model who can serve to the community by extending her knowledge and experience to promote millet in the region with a new hope.