M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Historically, women play a crucial role in the on-farm production and processing of millets. At
the small and marginal farm holdings and households, women’s drudgery in production and
post-harvest processing is one of the reasons for the neglect of millets cultivation. Besides,
lower profitability of millets compared to alternative crops, the demand of women labour for
agronomic practices especially weeding and harvesting, drudgery in pounding and lack of
processing machines especially for littlemillet and italianmillet species are the other reasons
for neglecting them in farming as well as its use as food. In Kolli Hills, apart from maintenance
of interaspecific millet diversity, the communities also evolved different cropping systems
appropriate for these millets. The small millet grains, unlike the principal cereal grains, have
superior nutritional profile for more than one dietary component. So in order to revive the
growing of millets, the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation have been facilitating
development programmes to ease women’s work burden. This research seeks answers to “what
extent simplified farm implements and post harvest technologies reduced the drudgery of
women in on farm and off farm activities in millets”? The paper explains about the milletspecific
production and post-harvesting constraints faced by women and the effect of use of
farm implements and machineries in reducing drudgery and saving time for women in the
millet production systems.