Millet Magic: How 3,000 farmers sowed life on parched lands in Karnataka
Bengaluru: What began as a modest effort on parched parcels of land, totalling 50-acres, has now grown into a successful agricultural movement, spanning over 2,000 acres across 23 villages in Dharwad and Haveri districts.
Nearly 3,000 farmers came together to revive drought-stricken farmlands through cultivation of millets — quietly turning years of adversity into a sustainable success story.
This grassroots transformation was triggered by a prolonged five-year drought that devastated the region before 2021. Once dominated by water-intensive crops like soya, Bt cotton, and maize, the area was facing an agrarian crisis. With dwindling yields and incomes, farmers were searching for alternatives.
The answer came in the form of millets — climate-resilient, low-input crops that require minimal water.
Under the global CROPS4HD (Consumption of resilient orphan crops & products for healthier diets) project, the initiative is being implemented in Karnataka by SWISSAID India in collaboration with Sahaja Samruddha, an NGO promoting agro-biodiversity and organic farming. Six millet varieties — little millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, proso, kodo, and browntop — are now widely cultivated, alongside forgotten pulses like horse gram and moth bean, and traditional greens like amaranth.
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Anitha Reddy, director of Crops4HD project in Dharwad, said it's a mindset shift. "We started small, with farmers cultivating millets on just a quarter-acre each. As they saw better yields and reduced risks, confidence grew, and the acreage expanded."
To overcome skepticism, demonstration farms played a vital role. Devakumar, retired director of the University of Agricultural Sciences, explained agricultural melas and peer interactions helped farmers.
"They saw the crops, interacted with cultivators, and got technical inputs from experts. That changed their perspective."
In Nov 2022, 2,000 farmers came together to form Devadanya Farmer Producer Company, which now includes 5,000 members. The collective helps farmers access seeds, training, and better markets while promoting soil and water conservation. "With support from FPO, our input costs have dropped by up to 12%, and profits are finally visible," said Eshwaryagowda B Patil, a farmer and FPO director.
As Krishna Prasad of Sahaja Samruddha put it, "We're not just growing crops, we're cultivating resilience, confidence, and a more sustainable future for farming.
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A two-day seed festival kicked off Saturday in Bengaluru, organised by Institution of Agricultural Technologists along with Sahaja Samrudha, featuring participation from over 200 seed conservators across Karnataka and other states. Along with Devadanya FPO, there are 30 other stall exhibits, which include 100+ varieties of millets, over 1,000 paddy varieties, legumes, root crops, greens, and vegetables, including Bengal's pulses, Odisha's rice varieties, and tuber crops from Kerala's Wayanad region.
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