Asian Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

Ragi is an important millet crop cultivated in about 82919 ha in Tamil Nadu and accounts for 77% of the total millet cultivated area. It is rich in protein, dietary fibre, minerals like calcium and iron and has been recommended for diabetes and heart diseases. Ragi is being cultivated in an area of 350ha in Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu and has a potential to be expanded in terms of cultivable area under this major rice growing district owing to the changing climatic situations. Farmers of the district could realize only low yields and gross returns due to cultivation of local varieties and non adoption of improved package of practices. Hence the present study was undertaken by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Tiruvallur situated in Tirur village in order to assess the performance of high yielding ragi varieties and to perform the yield gap and economic analysis under improved management practices and to motivate the farmers in cultivating high yielding ragi varieties. The improved varieties ML 365 and CO (Ra) 15 performed better than the local cultivar Balamani and gave higher yields, net returns and BC ratio. However the technology gap noticed under the demonstration could be abridged by improving the soil nutrient status and following improved package of practices. ML 365 recorded higher yield and returns and has high effective gain in comparison to CO (Ra) 15 and hence could be recommended for cultivation in Tiruvallur district.