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Twenty-five Years of Pearl Millet Improvement in India

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/10887/
 
Title Twenty-five Years of Pearl Millet
Improvement in India
 
Creator Yadav, O P
Rai, K N
Rajpurohit, B S
Hash, C T
Mahala, R S
Gupta, S K
Shetty, H S
Bishnoi, H R
Rathore, M S
Kumar, A
Sehgal, S
Raghvani, K L
 
Subject Crop Improvement
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
Molecular Biology
Millets
Pearl Millet
Pest Management
Agricultural Research
Drylands Agriculture
Genetics and Genomics
 
Description Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L). R. Br.) is grown on more than 9 million ha in India,
ranking third after rice and wheat in acreage. It is primarily grown for food and dry fodder, though a
significant portion of pearl millet grain is also used for non-food purposes such as poultry and cattle
feed and alcohol extraction. Pearl millet improvement research in India is carried out through the All
India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project (AICPMIP) administered by the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR). AICPMIP is one of 61 coordinated projects working under the aegis of
ICAR. Enormous accomplishments have been made in pearl millet improvement during the last 25
years. This book presents an overview of achievements in genetic improvement, cultural practices,
disease and insect-pest management, seed production and value addition.
Genetically diverse germplasm and breeding materials with adequate disease resistance have
been strategically utilized in the breeding of hybrid parental lines resulting in development of hybrids
with good adaptation to diverse production environments. High productivity combined with
appropriate maturity duration (mostly 75-85 days) as per the agro-ecological requirements, and
downy mildew resistance have been given the highest priority in the cultivar development programme
using both conventional and molecular breeding techniques. A total of 115 improved cultivars were
released during the last 25 years, which provided a wider cultivar choice to farmers in various agroecological
regions.
Agronomic research conducted in AICPMIP included both research station experiments and
on-farm extension trials that led to the establishment of detailed recommendations for individual
pearl millet growing zone with respect to time of sowing, seed rate, weed management, fertilizer
application (including bio-fertilization), cropping systems and moisture conservation. Proper
agronomic recommendations made it possible to harness the yield potential of high-yielding hybrids
and varieties.
High-yielding hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) have been widely adopted by
Indian farmers. Currently, nearly 65% of pearl millet area is under improved cultivars, mainly hybrids.
Following the adoption of high-yielding and disease resistant cultivars, pearl millet productivity has
gone up from 539 kg/ha during 1986-90 to 932 kg/ha during 2006-10 registering a 73% improvement,
which is highest among all food crops. The rate of improvement in pearl millet productivity during
1986-2010 has been 20 kg/ha/year as compared to 6.3 kg/ha/year during 1960-85. This extent of
improvement in pearl millet productivity has resulted in more than 45% improvement in its grain
production, from 5.83 million tons during 1986-90 to 8.48 million tons during 2006-10.
A genetic linkage map of pearl millet has been developed and quantitative trait loci (QTL) have
been identified for traits of economic importance to facilitate molecular marker-assisted selection.
Several processing technologies have been fine-tuned to enhance shelf life of pearl millet-based
traditional and health-food products. In the climate-change scenario, pearl millet is likely to play a
greater role in the future in providing food and nutritional security.
 
Publisher ICAR
 
Date 2012
 
Type Monograph
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/10887/1/Twenty-five%20Years%20of%20Pearl%20Millet%20Improvement%20in%20India.pdf
Yadav, O P and Rai, K N and Rajpurohit, B S and Hash, C T and Mahala, R S and Gupta, S K and Shetty, H S and Bishnoi, H R and Rathore, M S and Kumar, A and Sehgal, S and Raghvani, K L (2012) Twenty-five Years of Pearl Millet Improvement in India. Documentation. ICAR, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.