Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has advised farmers to take a decision on sowing kharif crops on the basis of their prices as good quality sorghum grains during the harvest season would cost between Rs 21-23 per kg against the current Rs 22-24 in the Tirupur regulated market.
The Agro Marketing Intelligence and Business Promotion Centre in TNAU said prices would remain flat (in September-October) for kharif produce after it analysed rates prevailing in the Tirupur market for the last 12 years.
Sorghum is mainly cultivated as a rain-fed crop in Tamil Nadu and is used as grain, fodder and dry feed, with a cultivated area of 2.1 lakh hectares, producing 1.75 lakh tonnes in 2012-13, it said.
Namakkal (26 per cent), Dindigul (11 per cent), Coimbatore (10 per cent), Tiruchirapalli (10 per cent), Salem (9 per cent), Virudhunagar (5 per cent) and Dharmapuri (5 per cent) are the major sorghum growing districts, contributing 76 per cent of total sorghum area of the state.
The major sorghum varieties cultivated in the area are Manjal (yellow) cholam for good quality fodder production and Vellai (While) cholam (sorghum) for food and feed purposes.
Sorghum can be grown in Kharif (July-September), Rabi (October-December), as well as in summer season.
In India, sorghum area is 5.82 million hectares with a production of 5.54 million tonnes in 2013-14, with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu being the major growing states.
