Saving finger millet varieties.
He has been successfully growing finger millet varieties in his farm.
Naturally, we see a rich diversity of finger millet varieties in this region.
Sahaja Samrudha, a farmers organisation that has been working towards preserving and propagating heritage seeds, put in efforts to collect such heritage varieties from different finger millet growing regions of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
He waters the plants only four times — soon after transplantation, after one month, while manuring and during flowering.
As a result, the crop has yielded well.
One can get a yield of up to 20 quintals with proper management,” says Somashekhara.
His wife Mani is happy that they could source and conserve a local variety, ayyana ragi, that was popular in the olden days.
Somashekhara’s experiment has proved that finger millet can be grown in this region in summer months too.“If farmers come forward to conserve at least one variety, that will help save and propagate the varietal diversity,” says seed conserver Boregowda.
The farmers in Mandya had forgotten finger millet as irrigation canals carry water to the fields perennially, prompting them to grow two crops of paddy.