It is preferred to maize because of the preference of its grain for human food and straw for animal feed. The crop also has considerable importance in the farming system, due to different socio-economic considerations. Farmers believe that mixed cropping ghaiya with maize is advantageous as it would give higher combined yield, few rows of maize in the flat tars also facilitate in broadcasting ghaiya more uniformly. Farmers decision to plant a succeeding crop after ghaiya depends on the moisture condition in the field. In case of good moisture conditions more of the niger plants are thinned out retaining the black gram and vice versa.
Diversity still exists for indigenous ghaiya landraces.
In majority of areas farmers maintain at least two varieties with different maturity. However the number of ghaiya landraces ranged between 1 to 4 per farming households. Generally farmers with very small holdings were found to maintain mostly a single landraces and always choose a more stable variety such as Sunakhari, Panthe, Chobo and Masino Thantar. Number of landraces increased with increase in land holding and those who maintained more landraces gave the reason that maintaining landraces diversity was mainly to utilise different fertility status of the land, to control volunteer plants, spread labour, minimise risk from biotic and biotic stresses, to meet different household utilities of rice such as for beaten rice, good eating quality, early maturity, easy threshability etc. For example landraces such as Kali Nathre and Kalo Dhan are maintained for controlling volunteer plants, Chobo for less fertile lands and for its early maturity, Sunakhari for high yield potential and Panthe for beaten rice and for less fertile lands.