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GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF PEARL MILLET FOR THE ARID ZONE OF NORTHWESTERN INDIA: LESSONS FROM TWO DECADES OF COLLABORATIVE ICRISAT-ICAR RESEARCH

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Title GENETIC IMPROVEMENT OF PEARL MILLET FOR THE ARID ZONE OF NORTHWESTERN INDIA: LESSONS FROM TWO DECADES OF COLLABORATIVE ICRISAT-ICAR RESEARCH
Not Available
 
Creator F. R. BIDINGER
O. P. YADAV
E. WELTZIEN RATTUNDE
 
Subject Pearl millet
Arid Zone
Genetic Improvement
 
Description Not Available
The arid zone of northwestern India is a unique adaptation zone for crop plants because of its pervasive
severe moisture stress and high temperatures. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a major cereal in this zone
as it represents approximately 25% of the total acreage of the crop in the country. Pearl millet hybrid
cultivars, which have gained widespread acceptance from farmers elsewhere in the country, have not been
adopted in the arid zone. Farmers continue to sow their traditional landraces because the yield advantage
of current hybrids is not expressed in this zone, and the risk of failure in poor years with the hybrids is
unacceptably high. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research have been collaborating to understand the unique nature of pearl millet
in the arid zone since the late 1980s. This collaboration has produced a better understanding of how arid
zone farmers manage their germplasm, of the unique features of this invaluable resource and of a range
of ways of using this germplasm to produce well-adapted new varieties and hybrids that will meet the
requirements of the farmers of the arid zone. It has been shown that new cultivars for the arid zone need
to be based on parental materials, including traditional landraces that are specifically adapted to the arid
zone. This paper summarizes the main lessons of nearly 20 years of this collaborative research
Not Available
 
Date 2019-06-18T11:48:35Z
2019-06-18T11:48:35Z
2008-01-01
 
Type Research Paper
 
Identifier Not Available
Not Available
http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/20588
 
Language English
 
Relation Not Available;
 
Publisher Cambridge University Press