CLIMATE-SMART FINGER MILLET PRODUCTION THROUGH SYSTEM OF FINGER MILLET INTENSIFICATION, NANO FERTILIZERS AND MORINGA SEED PRIMING

Abstract

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn.) is an important climate-resilient cereal with considerable potential for sustainable food and nutritional security. However, improving productivity under changing climatic conditions requires the integration of efficient crop establishment, improved nutrient-use efficiency and biologically based crop growth-promoting approaches. A field experiment was conducted during Kharif 2025 at the Agronomy Farms, Department of Agronomy, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute (PAJANCOA & RI), Karaikal, Puducherry, to evaluate the combined influence of the System of Finger Millet Intensification (SFMI), nano fertilizers and 2% moringa leaf extract (MLE) seed priming on productivity and profitability of finger millet. The experiment comprised factorial treatment combinations arranged in a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three replications. Among the treatments evaluated, the combination of SFMI with 2% MLE seed priming and foliar application of Nano Urea Plus (20% N, w/v) and Nano DAP (8% N and 16% P, w/v) at 4% concentration, applied twice at flowering and 15 days after the first spray, recorded superior yield attributes. The treatment recorded 6.32 productive tillers m⁻², 9.12 cm and a test weight of 3.85 g. The same treatment produced the highest grain yield of 2,529 kg ha⁻¹ and straw yield of 4,176.4 kg ha⁻¹, with a net return of ₹63,334 ha⁻¹ and a benefit-cost ratio of 2.94. Weather analysis further indicated that temperature, rainfall, relative humidity and evaporation, together with derived agrometeorological indices, influenced crop productivity. The recorded values of diurnal variation in temperature (DVT), growing degree days (GDD), heliothermal units (HTU), photothermal units (PTU) and heat use efficiency (HUE) were 12.8°C, 688.7°C day, 6547.21 degree hours, 8453.49 degree hours and 4.2 g m⁻² day⁻¹, respectively. The results indicate that integrating SFMI, MLE seed priming and foliar nano-fertilizer application has considerable potential as a climate-smart production strategy for improving finger millet productivity and farm profitability under the environmental conditions of Karaikal.