Crop Management and Nitrogen Physiology of Minor Millets in South Asia.

There are >500 million subsistence farmers globally encompassing significant female drudgery. Unfortunately, traditional international development initiatives target only hundreds-to-thousands of beneficiaries. A scalable approach is needed to improve the livelihoods and health of hundreds of millions of rural farmers, who are being further impacted by climate change. This study is supported by the findings of (Nagarajan et al.,2006).However, any larger-impact approach must be: simultaneously financially and environmentally sustainable; must not be based on hand-outs; must incorporate geographic differences; must ensure high adoption rates; should empower local private-sector entrepreneurs and poor people to be less dependent on unreliable government institutions; should train farmers on the power of the scientific method; should incorporate indigenous knowledge; and must communicate best-farming practices to illiterate women. The hypothesis that $10 Sustainable Agriculture Kits (SAKs), represent a cost-effective approach to rural development to meet these difficult challenges. This   research  would  support an existing CIFSRF project that focuses on South Asia’s >7 million farmers of minor millets, neglected cereals grown by marginalized farmers, that involves significant female drudgery. Specifically, to ensure that SAKs are need-based, the first objective will be to undertake gender-sensitive surveys of minor millet farming practices and needs. This would eventually create menu options for farmers to design appropriate SAKs, by first documenting best scientific and indigenous practices, low cost technologies and improved seeds. Eventually evaluate the effectiveness of SAKs and train farmers and evaluate farmers trained on the scientific method.