RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT
RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT
RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT
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Moderator's Overview<br />
Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) in Africa and India<br />
J.M.J. de Wet 1<br />
The genus Pennisetum is distributed throughout the<br />
tropics and subtropics of the world. It includes<br />
about 140 species. One African species, P. glaucum<br />
(L.) R. Br. was domesticated as the cereal pearl<br />
millet, and another African species, P. purpureum<br />
Schumach. became widely distributed as a tropical<br />
forage grass (Brunken et al. 1977). Pennisetum glaucum<br />
is widely distributed south of the Sahara in the<br />
semi-arid Sahel and bush from Senegal to Eritrea in<br />
Ethiopia. It was domesticated along the southern<br />
margins of the Saharan central highlands at the<br />
onset of the present dry phase some 4000-5000 years<br />
ago (Clark 1962, Davies 1968, Munson 1975).<br />
Pearl millet is the most drought tolerant of all<br />
domesticated cereals, and soon after its domestication<br />
it became widely distributed across the semiarid<br />
tropics of Africa and Asia. It is the principal<br />
food crop across sub-Saharan Africa and northwestern<br />
India, but in terms of world production,<br />
pearl millet is not a major cereal. It is planted on<br />
some 15 million ha in Africa, and 10 million ha in<br />
Asia, yielding approximately 10 million t of grain.<br />
Pearl millet is grown where no other cereal will yield<br />
grain, in regions with 200-800 mm of annual rainfall.<br />
It extends into the higher rainfall areas of the semiarid<br />
tropics, but when rainfall is above 800 mm<br />
during the growing season, sorghum [Sorghum bicolor<br />
(L.) Moench] becomes the principal cereal.<br />
Nevertheless, average pearl millet yields compare<br />
favorably with those of sorghum. Average sorghum<br />
yields were 580 kg ha -1 in Africa and 715 kg ha -1 in<br />
India during the 1984 growing season, while for the<br />
same period average pearl millet yields were about<br />
600 kg ha" 1 in both Africa and India.<br />
Pearl millet yields vary extensively between a low<br />
of 71 kg ha -1 in Botswana during the 1984 drought,<br />
and a high of 1818 kg ha -1 in Sierra Leone during the<br />
same year. Inflorescences range in size and shape<br />
from globose, less than 10 cm long, to candleshaped,<br />
over 150 cm long (Clement 1985). Spikelets<br />
are arranged in involucres surrounding a central<br />
axis. Each involucre has 1-9 spikelets. The potential<br />
large number of spikelets per inflorescence allows<br />
for a possible yield in pearl millet at least equal to the<br />
maximum yield in sorghum.<br />
Stapf and Hubbard (1934) recognized 13 cultivated,<br />
15 weedy, and 6 wild annual species in section<br />
Pennicillaria of Pennisetum. Clayton (1972) reduced<br />
these taxa to one cultivated species [P. americanum<br />
(L.) Leeke], two wild species [P. fallax (Fig. & de<br />
Not.) Stapf & Hubbard and P. violaceum (Lam.) L.<br />
Rich.], and two weedy species [P. stenostachyum<br />
(Klotzsch ex A. Br.) Stapf & Hubbard and P. dalzielii<br />
Stapf & Hubbard]. Brunken (1977) recognized the<br />
total variation of cultivated pearl millets as P. americanum<br />
spp. americanum, their closest wild relatives<br />
as spp. monodii (Maire) Brunken, and their<br />
weedy derivatives as spp. stenostachyum (Klotzsch<br />
ex A. Br. & Bouche) Brunken.<br />
The specific name P. americanum (L.) Leeke is<br />
not taxonomically valid. The oldest name for cultivated<br />
pearl millet is Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.,<br />
Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl. 1:195. 1810. This species is<br />
based on Panicum glaucum L., Sp. PI. ed. 1:56 1753<br />
(Type: Herman specimen from Ceylon in the British<br />
Museum, which is a typical cultivated pearl millet).<br />
The original diagnosis of Panicum glaucum by Linnaeus<br />
included two species of Setaria as well as the<br />
cultivated pearl millet. In the second edition of his<br />
species plantarum, Linnaeus transferred Panicum<br />
glaucum to Setaria. Modern rules of nomenclature,<br />
however, do not allow such a change, and the name<br />
Panicum glaucum therefore applies to cultivated<br />
Pennisetum. Variation within cultivated pearl millet<br />
is recognized as races typhoides, nigritarum, globosum,<br />
and leonis.<br />
Race typhoides has obovate caryopses, and inflorescences<br />
are cylindrical, usually less than five times<br />
as long as wide. This race is grown across the arid<br />
savanna from Senegal to Egypt and South Africa. It<br />
is the principal pearl millet grown in Asia. Race<br />
nigritarum has obovate, but angular caryopses.<br />
Inflorescences are candle-shaped. It is extensively<br />
grown from northern Nigeria to the Sudan. Race<br />
1. Formerly Cytogeneticist, Department of Agronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois,<br />
Director, Cereals, ICRISAT, Patancheru, A.P. 502 324, India.<br />
USA. Presently Program<br />
3