It’s a grain drain up in the hills

While the country celebrates 2023 as the Year of Millets, up in the hills of the Nilgiris, local grain varieties such as samai, ragi, varagu, aruva samai, samba wheat and ganjai, which once flourished, have faded into obscurity.
According to records, until the 1980s, millets were cultivated on 1,137 hectares in the Nilgiris, but now, all the minor grain varieties, especially ganjai grown in the hills, are almost wiped out.Tea, considered a cash crop, gradually captured the prime place among the farmers in the late 1980s. Today, millets are hardly cultivated and if at all, it’s on a few acres in tribal pockets. Records at the horticulture department show that millets were grown only on 13 hectares in 2021-2022.
“We used to cultivate ragi and samai and cereals like samba wheat and especially ganjai during the summer season till the 1990s,” says K Mohan, a farmer from Kambatty village. “But the farms were invaded by wild boars, which would destroy the crop. So we switched to tea cultivation. None of us grow millets now.”
As ganjai was popular among the Badaga community in the hills, it used to be cultivated in several areas. “After two cycles of potato cultivation, when the soil needed rejuvenation, samai, ragi and gan jai were sown. After the harvest, the hay straws were left in the soil for manure. But all that has changed now,” says Mohan.
Bellan, a farmer, says he gave up cultivating millets after his father died. “All our land has been transformed into tea plantations. “Millets was the staple in our home three decades ago. Now my daughters do not know what samai and ganjai are,” he says.
K Kali, a Kurumba tribal from Kilkotagiri, is one of the few farmers in the area who stood his ground with millets. “We have been growing millets on this land for generations. We stock the cultivated millets for our own needs and the rest, if any, are sold through NGOs,” says Kali, who owns around two acres of land. “We cannot survive without our traditional food, which is millet. That is why we continue to cultivate it.”
Kallan, a tribal elder, says that most farmers switched to tea for commercial reasons. “We need to consume millets to keep our bodies warm, which is why we continue to grow the crop.”
S Sibila Mary, joint director of the horticulture department, says they are helping Nilgiris farmers rediscover the importance of millets. “We have written to the government to sanction funds for subsidies for millet cultivation,” she says.
The horticulture department is planning to encourage farmers with 100 hectares to cultivate millet. “Our proposal suggests that ?10,000 be granted as subsidy per hectare for millet cultivation,” she says. “Pushing the farmers towards millet cultivation is a tough task. We will create awareness and motivate farmers but a subsidy is what will help.”
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