Indigenous Farming :: Indigenous Technical Knowledge
SORGHUM
- Sorghum ear heads are sun dried for two days and stored without seed separation by building a storage structure called 'Pattarai'. This structure is opened and threshed when needed..
- Soak the sorghum seeds in common salt solution before sowing to secure good germination under adverse conditions.
- Soak the sorghum seeds in cow urine for half-an-hour and sun drying them before sowing to control head smut and to induce drought tolerance.
- To ensure quick germination of sorghum seeds and to avoid shoot fly attack, enough water is boiled and kept in an open place throughout the night for cooling. In the next day morning prior to sowing, the sorghum seeds are immersed in cold water for some time and sown in the field, which produces better seedlings.
- Country plough is run at the early stage of sorghum crop to ensure optimum plant population.
- Sow sorghum during the Tamil months Vaikasi - Aani (May-June) to avoid shoot fly and stem borer.
- Sow cowpea as an intercrop in sorghum to minimize stem borer attack due to its repellent smell.
- Sow lab-lab as an intercrop to reduce stem borer damage in sorghum.
- Pouring neem cake extract drop by drop on the sorghum shoot to control shoot borer.
- Dusting ash on the infected leaves of sorghum to prevent the pest incidence.
- Dusting ash at milking stage to control ear head bugs.
- Growing coriander as a mixed crop in sorghum to control the parasitic weed viz., witch weed (Striga lutea).
- A black cloth is tied to a long pole and fixed in the centre of the field to scare away the crows.
- Mixing sorghum seeds with ash to prevent storage pests
FINGERMILLET
- Long duration varieties are adopted in dry lands to avoid the rainy days coinciding with the harvesting stage.
- Finger millet seeds are treated with cow urine at 1:10 ratio to enhance germination
- When a sample of dried finger millet grain is chewed, metallic sound indicates its dryness
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