The shrinking hopes of jowar farmers Premium

Praveen Hebballi, who cultivates a small patch of land near Betasuru in Belagavi district in north Karnataka, is a farmer with a difference. The young farmer has been growing multiple crops with the intention of preserving native varieties. His farm has scores of foxtail millet and Jowar varieties. “I was able to procure seeds of around 60 jowar varieties, of which around 45 germinated,” he says.

Praveen Hebballi, who cultivates a small patch of land near Betasuru in Belagavi district in north Karnataka, is a farmer with a difference. The young farmer has been growing multiple crops with the intention of preserving native varieties. His farm has scores of foxtail millet and Jowar varieties. “I was able to procure seeds of around 60 jowar varieties, of which around 45 germinated,” he says.

He works with various agencies like the Indian Institute of Millet Research, University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, Sahaja Samruddha, an organic farmers association and Revitalising Rainfed Agriculture Network.

Sadly, he is among the breed of Jowar farmers who seem to be vanishing. Though the great millet is the staple of most families in northern Karnataka, area under the crop is reducing.

“When I was growing up, there were jowar fields everywhere. But now they are hard to find. At least half the farmers in the village have given up cultivation of the . They may keep a few rows for self use as food grain for their families and fodder for the few cattle heads at home,’‘ said Hebballi.

The area under jowar in Karnataka in 1959-60 was 28.86 lakh hectares. It has reduced to just around six lakh hectares in 2022-23. The production has reduced from 12 lakh hectares in 1960 to around seven lakh hectares in 2023.

The fall has been drastic in the last few years. In 2017, farmers grew jowar on 11 lakh hectares. But it dropped to 7 lakh hectares in 2022. Even in predominantly jowar growing districts like Vijayapura, the acreage has been halved. It reduced to 65,000 hectares in 2023, from around 1.5 lakh hectares in 2017.

The only saving grace is that the productivity has increased three times, to 1.2 tonnes per hectares from just 4 quintals per hectares in six decades. This is due to the research and development efforts of farm scientists over the years.