Abstract

                                Millets are small-grained cereals which are very ancient in origin. They have served as food for man and his domesticated animals from prehistoric times. Growing wild in virgin soils, they yielded grain and fodder to the nomadic ancestors of the present civilised nations. Later on, settled life and pressure of population induced cultivation and selection, and innumerable varieties and forms came into existence. The important millets that are under cultivation are Sorghum (Cholam or Jonna), Pennisetum typhoides (Cumbu or Sajja), Eleusine coracana (Ragi), Setaria italica (Tenai), Paspalum scrobiculatum (Varagu or Avika), Panicum miliare (Samai or Samalu), Panicum miliaceum (Panivaragu or T'ariga), and Echinochloa frumentacea (Kudirai vali). Millet grains take no part in international commerce as they are the food of the poorer classes of people, and are very little cultivated in the more advanced agricultural regions. However, millets form the staple food of a quarter of the world's population of 2,000 millions, and they are the dominant cercals in the whole of Africa except the north, and that they are the mainstay of the population of Africa, China, Manchuria and about 30% of the population of India. Their importance is also enhanced by the fact that they have certain advantages over the other cereals. Some of them, particularly the Panicums, grow very rapidly and ripen more quickly than any other cereal and are hence suited to arens where the rainy season is short. Most of them thrive in arid regions and resist drought in a remarkable way. They flourish on land which is too thin or too poor to grow any other cereal, require less attention and have fewer pests than rice, wheat, maize etc. All of them are richer than rice and wheat in fat and minerals, while some are richer than wheat in protein also. All these facts point to their high status as important sources of human food and cattle fodder in the hotter and drier regions of the world. (In India, they occupy about 64 million acres with an annual production of 12 million tons of grain, while their area in the Madras State is 12-8 million acres, the annual grain production being 3-2 million tons. In Madras, 30% of the population and 60% of the cattle are entirely dependent on millets. Hence the importance of millets can never be over emphasised. In this State too, however, they have not received adequate attention, particularly with regard to manuring. A brief review of the outstanding results achieved in the State through manuring, and some recommendations are presented in this paper.

Key words :