Influence of sowing time on yield and economics of small millet crops during kharif in YSR kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh

In the changing climate scenario, millet crops are gaining importance due to factors such as low-maintenance, disease and pest resistance, nutritional benefits, market demand, fodder value and ecological benefits. As farmers especially in dry land areas are showing interest in cultivation of millets, finding out an optimum time of sowing for getting higher yield and good returns has become essential. Hence, the experiment was laid out at Agricultural Research Station, Utukur, Kadapa during kharif seasons of 2019 and 2020 to evaluate the performance of small millet crops under different sowing windows. The trial included three sowing windows namely July I F.N, July II F.N, and August I F.N and six millet crops viz., foxtail millet, little millet, brown top millet, proso millet, kodo millet and barnyard millet which were laid out in split plot design with sowing times in main plots and six millet crops in sub plots in three replications. The results indicated that July II F.N is the optimum time of sowing for small millet crops to get higher yield and net returns. Among the different crops sown, kodomillet recorded higher seed yield at different times of sowing followed by brown top millet. Whereas the lowest seed yield was recorded with little millet crop at all the dates of sowing.