Performance of Blast and Drought Tolerant Finger Millet Variety ML-365 under Front Line Demonstrations in Tumkur, Karnataka

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn) is one of the important millets grown extensively in Tumkur District. It is a hardy crop, has good adaption to wide range of environment especially heat, drought, marginal and degraded soils (Okalebo et al., 1991). It is mainly grown for its grains and it is highly nutritious. Its grains contain carbohydrate (65-75%), protein (5-8%), dietary fibre (15-20%), minerals (2.5-3.5%) and vitamins (Chethan and Malleshi, 2007). It is superior to rice and wheat, in respect of crude fibre, amino acids and minerals like calcium (344 mg/100g) and potassium (408 mg/100g). It also contains anti nutrients such as phytates, polyphenols, tannins and trypsin inhibitory factors.


Introduction
Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn) is one of the important millets grown extensively in Tumkur District. It is a hardy crop, has good adaption to wide range of environment especially heat, drought, marginal and degraded soils (Okalebo et al., 1991). It is mainly grown for its grains and it is highly nutritious. Its grains contain carbohydrate (65-75%), protein (5-8%), dietary fibre (15-20%), minerals (2.5-3.5%) and vitamins (Chethan and Malleshi, 2007). It is superior to rice and wheat, in respect of crude fibre, amino acids and minerals like calcium (344 mg/100g) and potassium (408 mg/100g). It also contains anti nutrients such as phytates, polyphenols, tannins and trypsin inhibitory factors.
Regular consumption of whole grain of finger millet and its products helps in managing International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 12 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Frontline demonstrations were conducted in farmers' fields of Tumkur district of Karnataka, India during kharif 2016 to 2018 to create awareness among the farmers and demonstrate the improved production technologies in finger millet. The integrated crop management practices including cultivation of drought and blast tolerant finger millet variety ML 365, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest and disease management practices were demonstrated and compared with the existing farmers practice followed in Finger millet cultivation. Results showed that demonstration of finger millet variety ML 365 with integrated crop management practices recorded higher grain yield of 23.61q/ha and farmers practice recorded lower yield of 18.46 q/ha. Adoption of integrated crop management practices increased the grain yield of finger millet to the tune of 28.16 per cent compared to farmers practice. Farmers earned higher net income of Rs.34661/ha through the demonstration and Rs.21428/ha with farmers practice. Besides, farmers realized higher benefit cost ratio (2.66) through the demonstration compared to farmer's practice (2.10). Thus, the frontline demonstration of improved variety with crop management practices increased the grain yield and net income of the farmers growing finger millet under rainfed condition. In the present study, potential of the improved variety and technologies were demonstrated systematically and scientifically in the farmers field along with farmers practice for further adoption by farming community in large scale. Article Info diabetes and its complications by regulation of glucose homeostasis and prevention of dyslipideamia. It also gives protection against the risk of cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal cancers and other health issues. It has health beneficial effects, such as anti-diabetic, anti-diarrheal, antiulcer, antiinflammatory, antitumerogenic, atherosclerogenic effects, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties (Devi et al., 2014). Hence, there is a great demand for improving finger millet production.

K e y w o r d s
Finger millet is being cultivated in an area of about 1,85,000 hectares in Tumkur District. About 90 per cent of the area under Finger millet is being cultivated under rainfed condition during kharif season. Under rainfed condition, farmers facing the problem of moisture stress at various crop growth stages thereby experiencing low yield and crop loss to some extent. Besides moisture stress, lack of knowledge on the availability of drought tolerant varieties, non adoption of improved cultivation practices, prevalence of nutrient deficiency, pest and disease incidence also lowers the finger millet productivity.
Hence, the productivity of finger millet might be increased by growing suitable variety along with improved crop management practices. Similar studies on crop yield increase by adoption of improved crop management practices were reported by Subhashree et al., (2017) in Finger millet; Sharma et al., (2016) and Singh (2017) in Wheat; Jat and Gupta (2015) in Pearl millet; Meena et al., (2014) in Maize Considering the above facts, a frontline demonstration was proposed and conducted in the farmers' holdings to demonstrate the improved package of practices for higher productivity in finger millet under rainfed condition.

Materials and Methods
Frontline demonstration was conducted to demonstrate the potential of the drought and blast tolerant variety with the improved package of practices in comparison with the existing farmers practice in the farmers' holdings of Tumkur district during kharif 2016-2018 under rainfed condition. Demonstration was conducted in 25ha area in three villages involving 50 farmers. The soils of the demonstration fields were collected and analysed for its initial soil nutrients status. The results showed that the soils were slightly alkaline in soil reaction, non saline, low in nitrogen, medium in phosphorus and potassium nutrient content. Each demonstration was conducted in an area of 0.4 ha and with an adjacent area of 0.4 ha selected for farmers practice. In the demonstration, the improved practices including cultivation of finger millet variety ML 365, integrated nutrient management, integrated pest and disease management practices were demonstrated along with the farmers practice.
Finger millet variety ML 365 was released from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru during 2008. It has 100-105 days duration, high yielding variety, tolerant to drought and blast disease. In farmers practice, finger millet variety GPU 28 was grown with the existing farm-ers practices such as broadcasting of seeds, basal application of complex fertilizers, etc. The details on the technological interventions followed in the demonstration and farmers practice were given in Table 1. Before initiating the demonstration, the beneficiary farmers were trained in all the improved practices in finger millet cultivation and followed in the demonstrations. Demonstration field were periodically observed by the scientists of Krishi vigyan Kendra.
At the time of harvest, the data on plant population (number), plant height (cm), number of tillers per plant (number), days taken for 50% flowering (number) and grain yield (q/ha) of finger millet crop were recorded from both the demonstration and farmers practice. Based on the cost of inputs and market price of the produce, economic parameters such as net return (Rs/ha) and benefit cost ratio were worked out.

Results and Discussion
Results of the study indicated that demonstration of drought and blast tolerant finger millet variety ML 365 with integrated crop management practices recorded the higher plant population (35.5/m2), plant height (75.0 cm) and higher number of tillers per plant (4.55). Lower plant population (28.5/m2), plant height (64.5 cm) and number of tillers per plant (2.5) were recorded in farmers practice ( Table 2). The demonstrated variety attained maturity one week earlier than the existing local variety. Cultivation of drought tolerant finger millet variety ML 365 with integrated crop management practices recorded higher average grain yield of 23.61q/ha (Table 3). Farmers practice recorded lower average grain yield of 18.46q/ha. Adoption of improved practices increased the yield of finger millet to the tune of 28.16 per cent compared to the farmers practice under rainfed condition. The increased yield under demonstration might be due to the combined effect of high yielding, drought tolerant variety and adoption of improved crop management practices. The similar results of yield enhancement through front line demonstration of improved technologies has been reported by Kumar et al., (2010) in bajra; Solanki et al., (2014) in maize and Anand Naik et al., (2016) in sorghum. Besides, the incidence of blast disease was not reported in the demonstrated variety and it was 8 per cent in the farmers practice.  . It might be due to the higher grain yield recorded in demonstration compared to farmers practice. Similar results of increase in net income and benefit cost ratio due to adoption of improved technologies in the demonstrations were reported by Jat and Gupta (2015) in pearl millet; Dhaka et al., (2010) in maize and Anand Naik et al., (2016) in sorghum.
Results of the demonstration revealed that cultivation of finger millet variety ML 365 with integrated crop management practices increased the yield and income of the farmers under rainfed condition. In addition, the introduced variety has satisfied the farmers preferences such as high tiller production, early maturity and tolerance to grain shattering or dusting.
Hence, the farmers were convinced with the performance of the variety with regard to its yield potential and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses under rainfed condition.