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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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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/396/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0014479708007059
 
Title Genetic improvement of pearl millet for the arid zone of northwestern India: lessons from two decades of collaborative ICRISAT-ICAR research
 
Creator Bidinger, F R
Yadav, O P
Weltzien, E
 
Subject Millets
 
Description 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.
 
Publisher Cambridge University Press
 
Date 2009
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
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Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/396/1/ExpAgri_45_1_107%E2%80%93115_2009.pdf
Bidinger, F R and Yadav, O P and Weltzien, E (2009) Genetic improvement of pearl millet for the arid zone of northwestern India: lessons from two decades of collaborative ICRISAT-ICAR research. Experimental Agriculture, 45 (1). pp. 107-115.