SCIENTIFIC RATIONALITY AND ADOPTION OF INDIGENOUS ITALIAN MILLET (PANICUM ITALICUM L)CULTIVATION

Abstract

India is treasure land of natural wealth of biodiversity with edaphic and its climatic variations and with its geographical features. India, with its long history had been a cradle of biological wealth, intellectual knowledge and spiritual wisdom. The “Malayali” tribes of Kolli hills located at Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu possessed greater wisdom of cultivation of Italian millets without any deterioration. The rich indigenous knowledge of these tribes can be effectively harness towards sustained agriculture. With this perspective the study was conducted by collecting, then classifying, categorized documenting, rationality analyzing and extent of adoption of the sorted Indigenous Tribal Agricultural Practices (ITAPs) of Italian millet cultivation. For assessing the scientific rationality selected 16 ITAPs on Italian millet cultivation were documented and then classified into two different categories. The first categorization was pruned with crop production encompassing 15 ITAPs and the second with a single ITAP in plant protection. The identified ITAPs on Italian millet cultivation aspect were then assessed scientifically and the extent of the adoption of the same was verified. This study will help in amalgamating the rationale and adopted ITAPs into the package of practices in the cultivation of Italian millets for further dissemination and sustainable agricultural development.