Record Details

Diversity among African Pearl Millet Landrace Populations

OAR@ICRISAT

View Archive Info
 
 
Field Value
 
Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/1541/
http://dx.doi.org/10.2135/cropsci1995.0011183X003500030048x
 
Title Diversity among African Pearl Millet Landrace Populations
 
Creator Ouendeba, B
Ejeta, G
Hanna, W W
Kumar, K A
 
Subject Millets
 
Description Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is widely grown in
arid to semi-arid regions of Africa. The crop is particularly adapted
to Sahelian West Africa where landraces have evolved in different
ecological niches. These landraces have accumulated interpopulation
diversity that has not been characterized. Evaluation of genetic diversity
is a prerequisite for successful germplasm exploitation through
breeding. The objective of this study was to characterize morphological
and agronomic variability among African landrace populations of
pearl millet. Ten pearl millet landrace populations widely grown in
several African countries and two experimental Fi hybrids were evaluated
at two locations in Niger during the 1989 rainy season. Thirteen
characters (downy mildew [Sderospora graminicola (Sacc.) Schroet]
incidence, days to flowering, primary spike length, peduncle exsertion,
spike girth, flag leaf width, stem diameter, spike number per plant,
non-productive tillers per plant, plant height, spike yield per plot,
grain yield per plot, and 1000-seed weight) were measured on six
replicates of each landrace populations. In the pooled analysis, all
landrace populations were significantly different for one or more of
the characters evaluated. The Niger landrace populations showed
much less variation than the other African landrace populations for
most characters investigated. Ward's cluster and principal component
analyses were used to investigate the nature and degree of divergence
in the landrace populations. The cluster analyses revealed similarities
between Niger and Senegal and between Niger and Nigerian landrace
populations. Four principal components were found to explain 92%
of the total variation. Days to flowering, plant height, stem diameter,
primary spike length, and grain and spike yield per plot were the
major sources of diversity among the landrace populations. These
results could be useful in choosing potentially heterotic pearl millet
populations for intercrossing to develop improved cultivars, synthetics,
and hybrids for use in Africa
 
Publisher Crop Science Society of America
 
Date 1995
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/1541/1/Crop_Science_35%283%29919-924_1995.pdf
Ouendeba, B and Ejeta, G and Hanna, W W and Kumar, K A (1995) Diversity among African Pearl Millet Landrace Populations. Crop Science, 35 (3). pp. 919-924. ISSN 1435-0653