Growth and Instability in Area, Production and Productivity of Major and Minor Millets in Karnataka

In the 21^st century, climate changes, water scarcity, increasing world population, rising food prices and other socio-economic impacts are expected to generate a great threat to agriculture and food security worldwide, especially for the poorest people who live in arid and sub-arid regions. These impacts present a challenge to scientists and nutritionists to investigate the possibilities of producing, processing and utilizing other potential food sources to end hunger and poverty. Today, Karnataka is one of the leading producers and consumers of millets in the country. In production, it stands third after Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh states, with 2.01 million hectares under cultivation. Karnataka State has a typical composition having a large share of its area under highly diversified agricultural crops. In view of this the present study was aimed to analyse the growth and instability in area, production and productivity of different selected millets. The results revealed that, the growth in area and production of millets was negative except for growth in production of pearl millet. This reduction in area under cultivation of major and minor millets was mainly because of farmers shifting cultivation from major and minor millets to the cash crops due to higher returns. It indicated farmers’ attitude of switching over to other remunerative crops in the state as a whole. However, from the growth rates it is clear that decline in area had significant effect on production. That means positive growth in productivity was off set by negative growth in area resulting in decline in production. The positive growth in productivity of finger millet and pearl millet was due to increased use of better yielding varieties and use of manures and fertilizers by the farmers.