o Wide adaptability to different soils
o Very poor to fertile soils
o Can tolerate salinity >pH 11.0
o Best soils are alluvial, loamy and sandy with good drainage
o Heavy clay soils with poor drainage less suitable

o It is grown in tropics and sub-tropics
o Mean temp of 26-29°C is best proper growth
o Crop yield reduces below 20°C
o Crop has good drought recovery
o High capacity for soil water uptake
o Grown well in RF of 500-900mm

o Deep ploughing cum shallow harrowing at last
o Fine tilth is essential
o Form beds & channels with 10 to 20m-2
o Provide irrigation channels at proper interval for irrigated crop
o Apply FYM / compost before forming beds

VL Mandua315, VL Mandua324, VL Mandua347, VL Mandua352, GPU 48, GPU 66, GPU 67, KMR 301

Carbendazim or Thiram2-3 g/kg of seed,
o Organic: Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorscens5g each/kg seed

o Mid May to mid June (hills), June-July as rainfed crop (Plains)
o First fortnight of June is best for rainfed
o Under rainfed yield is affected by early and late sowings

Seed Rate: 4.0kg/acre;
Row spacing: 20-30 cm (1.6-2.0 lakh plants/acre)

2.0 kg/acre, 15x15 cm spacing, 21-25 day old seedlings, 2 seedlings/hill.

o Seed treatment is must
o Seedling roots may be dipped azospirillum
o 2 seedlings / hill
o 3 cm depth
o Thin the population in direct seeded crop to maintain optimum plant stand

o For rainfed crop too irrigation at tillering, flowering can increase the yield
o Irrigation at 50% depletion is sufficient
o It may be based on growth phases
  Establishment 2 irrigations
  Vegetative up to 25 days – 2 irrigations
  Flowering – 25-55 d – 3 irrigations
  Maturity – 56 – onwards – one or two
  Stop irrigation after dough stage

o Responds well to fertilizer
o General recommendation
  60:30:30 kg /ha
o Half N & full P & K basal
o Remaining N at 15 DAT / 25DAS
o Seed inoculation with bio-fertilizers is advantageous

o Severe problem and controlling early (2-3 weeks) is very essential
o Hand weeding gives satisfactory control of weeds
o Herbicides like Butachlor 1.25 kg as pre-emergence for transplanted crop
o Preemergence (within 2 DAS) Isoproturon 0.75kga.i./hand manual weeding at 30 days after emergence
o For direct seeded crop post-emergence 2,4 D Na salt @0.5 kg 10 days after crop germination

o In hilly areas mixed with soybean. Intercropping can be done in the ratio of 1:1

o Blast (Fingermillet): Mancozeb @2.5g/l water or Tricyclazole @0.6g /l of water
o Helminthosporium leaf spot (Barnyard millet): Mancozeb@2.5g/l of water
o Organic control: Seed treatment with Trichoderma harzianum (5g/kgseed) and two sprays of Pseudomonas fluorscens(0.5%)
o Downy mildew (Foxtail millet): Seed treatment with Ridomil MZ @ 2g /litre

o Ear head alone
o Staggered harvesting is also done to collect differentially maturing ear heads
o Ear heads are dried and manual / machine threshed
o Straw may be harvested and dried for animal