The currently used Package of Practices (PoP) in millet is as primitive as farming itself in Haryana, India. Since April 2019, in order to enhance the income of farmers, demonstrations of the modern scientific PoP have been introduced in villages of Nuh district in Haryana through CSR-supported projects being implemented by S M Sehgal Foundation. In the new PoP, farmers have been trained to include micro and macronutrients in the soil for higher crop yields, which had been damaged due to excessive use of urea and DAP.
Irfan lives with his seven-member family and owns 2.5 acres of inherited agricultural land. The land was saline with limited irrigation facilities and produced low yields. He was one of the farmers selected to take part in the demonstration of cultivating millet, using modern practices in 0.5 acres of his land. Irfan was astonished to see a major increase in yield in the demonstration plot versus the control plot where he used his traditional methods for comparison.
He earned INR 5,025 as profit in the millet crop, since the demonstration plot yielded about 1.5 quintals more millet compared to the control plot. This result encouraged him to completely switch over from traditional practices to modern agricultural practices. Irfan said, “This profit from just a half-acre helped me to deposit the school fees of my two children, which had been due for the past six months.”
The project also promotes a modern PoP for millet, mustard, and wheat to increase the crop production and income of the farmers in Nuh district, Haryana.
Authors: Ajeet Kumar and Akshay Gilbert
(Ajeet is field assistant and Akshay is project associate, Nuh, Haryana)
Contact us 
Sign up for