Description

Proso millet is important minor millet grown in India. The crop is able to evade drought by its quick maturity. Being a short duration crop (60 -90 days) with relatively low water requirement, this escapes drought period and, therefore, offers better prospects for intensive cultivation in dry land areas. Under unirrigated conditions, proso millet is generally grown during kharif season but in areas where irrigation facilities are available, this is profitably grown as summer catch crop in high intensity rotations.

Origin and History: Proso millet probably originated in India. It spread from India to other cheena growing parts of the world. It might have originated for?Panicum psilopodium which is found in its wild state in Burma, India and Malaysia.

Climatic Requirements:?Proso millet is a crop of warm climate. It is grown extensively in warm regions of the world. It is highly drought resistant and can be grown in areas where there is scanty rainfall. It can withstand water stagnation also to some extent. It is a hardly crop which completes its life cycle in a short span of time.

Time of Sowing: As a kharif crop, proso millet should be sown in the first fortnight of July with the onset of monsoon rains and as a summer crop it should be sown by the middle of April. During summer, it would be desirable to sow proso millet as soon as the harvesting of the Rabi crop is over.

Harvesting and Threshing: Proso millet is ready for harvest after 65-75 days of sowing in most of the varieties. Harvest the crop when it is about to mature. The seeds in the tip of upper heads ripe and shatter before the lower seeds and later panicles get mature. Therefore, the crop should be harvested when about two thirds of seeds are ripe. Crop is threshed with hand or bullocks