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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Genetic improvement of pearl millet for the arid zone of northwestern India: Lessons from two decades of collaborative ICRISAT-ICAR research
Experimental Agriculture, Volume 45, No. 1, Year 2009
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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. © 2008 Copyright Cambridge University Press.
Authors & Co-Authors
Bidinger, Francis R.
India, Patancheru
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics
Yadav, Om Parkash
India, Jodhpur
Icar - Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur
Weltzien Rattunde, E.
Mali, Bamako
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics Mali
Statistics
Citations: 12
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1017/S0014479708007059
ISSN:
00144797
e-ISSN:
14694441
Research Areas
Genetics And Genomics