This presentation is done by 2010/2011 batch of Export Agriculture students of Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka as a requirement for the subject which is “Rice & Field Crop Production”. Note that the information included here is relevant to Sri Lankan condition.

1. Common millet
(Panicum miliaceum)

2. Introduction
• Also known as, Proso millet, hog millet or white millet
• origin is in China, East Asia and India
• belongs among the oldest cultivated crops
• Cultivated in dry zone
• capable of giving grain yields up to 4 tons in about 60
days

3. Kingdom : Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta –Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class : Liliopsida –Monocotyledons
Subclass : Commelinidae
Order : Cyperales
Family : Poaceae – Grass family
Genus : Panicum L. – panicgrass P
Species : Panicum miliaceum L. – proso millet P

4. carbohydrate, 59.75
Nutritive value
Protein, 11.43 Fat, 3.08 mineral, 4.98
moiture, 11.81 fiber, 8.95
calary, 312.4
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
CARBOHYDRATE PROTEIN FAT MINERAL MOITURE FIBER CALARY
nutritive value

5. Morphology
• Stem is erected and divided on internodes
• Leaf blades are more or less hairy on both surfaces and the edges
• They are 1 to 2 cm wide and up to 30 cm long
• Leaf sheaths are densely hairy and have overlapping margins
• grain is round oval or elongated covered with hulls all around
• can be white, yellow, grey, red and brown
• inflorescence are opened, clustered and compact
• are more uniform in maturity
• has a shallow root system

8. Economic value
• less important both economically and as a food
• due to poor yields and less popularity as food or feed
• Food -Groats (dehusked grains) are the basic product
easy to digestible with high nutritional value
• Fodder
Millet grain is high quality feed for poultry, pigs and fish ,Green
feed and millet straw have high nutritional value

9. • Other
Pillows filled up with millet husks are very interesting and exclusive products
• Medicinal value
 used in indigenous medicine
specially used in snake poisoning

10. Recommended varieties
• MS 1491
• AC 254
• V62

11. Ecological Requirements
• requires light and worm soils
• Deep,loamy,fertile,rich in organic matter are preferred
•Well drained soil with adequate moisture
• emerging plants are very sensitive to cold weather

12. • suitable for growing in yala season with the onset of the rain
• Can be planted in maha season
• So it can be harvested before depletion of soil moisture
• Duration of growing season varies from 60 to 110 days

13. Cultivation
• can be grown as a main crop or intercrop
• The best integration in crop rotation is after root or leguminous
crops
• Pre-sowing preparation must ensure well-firmed seedbed
• First week of october for successful growth
• timely cultivation reduce the pest problems

14. Spacing
• can be planted/seeded at 30cm apart and at two weeks to thin
down to 7.5-10.0 cm distance within the row
• 5-6 kg of seed are required for one hectare of cultivation

15. Weed Control
• Weeds could be controlled by manual methods such as
weeding and application pre and post emergent weed
killers
• Crops need to be maintained weed free at least until
flowering stage

16. Irrigation
• During dry periods, irrigations are required every 4-7 day depending
on the severity of the drought and type of soil

17. Diseases and Insect pest control
• Minor millets are less affected by diseases

18. Pre – Harvest Operations
• One of the major pre - harvest operations is the field
inspection to ensure uniform ripening of the crop
• If ripening is not uniform in the field, selective
harvesting may be done to pick the ripe heads that may
start shattering, leaving the unripe heads for the next
round of harvesting

19. Harvesting
• Normally it is done by removing plant with sickles or small hand
knives
• This is sometimes preceded by breaking the plant by hand
• Some farmers practice by pulling up the entire plant by the roots
as soon as the grain is ripe in order to avoid excessive shattering,
and is threshed immediately

20. Threshing
• Threshing of millet is done manually

21. Drying
• On mats laid down on the sun, or plastic sheets

22. Cleaning
• Cleaning refers to separation of contaminants from produce, and
complete removal of the contaminants so that the cleaned
produce is free from re-contamination
• By winnowing, common millet can be cleaned

23. Storage
• Millets have excellent storage properties and can be kept for
up to 4 -5 years in simple storage facilities

24. Group members
• R.P.G.Chathuranga UWU/EAG/11/0032
• V.P.A.Dilrukshi UWU/EAG/11/0040
• N.U.M.Perera UWU/EAG/11/0041