NEW DELHI: The Centre has sought to give a boost to climate resilient ‘ bajra ’ (pearl millet) through the substantial hike in minimum support price ( MSP ) but sowing of this ‘nutri-cereal’ has not yet picked up. Farm scientists believe just increasing support price won’t increase its acreage unless it is backed with supply of high yielding varieties and other support to farmers.

Sowing figures till July 20 (16 days after the announcement of MSP hike) showed that the sown area under this crop was down by over 25% compared to its acreage at this time last year and nearly 10% below its normal corresponding period acreage.

Though sowing of other millet — jowar ( sorghum ) — has shown pace, bajra, whose normal sown area (74.03 lakh hectares) is the highest among all millets has, reported substantial dip by Friday (at the end of half of the current sowing season). Similarly, sown area of ‘ragi’ (finger millet) too has shown a dip by over 7% compared to its acreage at this time last year and nearly 22% decline compared to its normal corresponding period acreage.

“The MSP hike is good for millets but mere announcement won’t serve the purpose unless it is backed by assured procurement and other support. It needs a holistic package which includes ensuring access of high yielding varieties and better farm practices to farmers through extension services,” said agriculture scientist B S Dwivedi of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute .

Analysis of the new MSP shows that if farmers opt to produce bajra, they will get nearly 97% return over their cost of production — the highest return among all 14 MSP-backed Kharif crops.

Officials, tracking acreage, believe the sowing trend may change only when farmers see results of procurement of these crops in the next couple of marketing seasons. Since focus has traditionally been on procurement of popular crops like paddy (kharif) and wheat (rabi), the change will take time in showing results on the ground in terms of increasing acreage of ‘nutri-cereals’.

Amongst nutri-cereals, MSP of bajra has been increased by Rs 525 per quintal, jowar (hybrid) by Rs 730 per quintal and ragi by Rs 997 per quintal in absolute terms as compared to their respective support prices of 2017-18.

The highest percentage increase in MSP over the previous year is seen by ragi (52.47%) while the most popular Kharif crop paddy has got hike of nearly 13% (from Rs 1,550 per quintal in 2017-18 to Rs 1,750 per quintal in 2018-19). Normal sown area of all millets - jowar, bajra, ragi and small millets - together in the summer season is 114.33 lakh hectares which is slightly over 10% of the total sown area under all Kharif crops (1058.10 lakh hectares) in the country.

