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RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

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varieties with acceptable grain quality and resistance to prevailing pests and diseases. A number of approaches<br />

have been followed, including collection and screening of indigenous germplasm, introduction and evaluation<br />

of exotic material, hybridization, and population improvement by recurrent selection methods. In national<br />

trials conducted from 1977-1979, one cultivar, Serere Composite-2 (SC-2) from Uganda, outyielded the best<br />

local variety 'Kordofani'. SC-2 was released in January 1981 for general cultivation under the name of<br />

'Ugandi'<br />

A composite 'Bristled Population,' which was derived from bristled inbreds of Sudanese and exotic origin,<br />

and improved by both S, and full-sib methods of recurrent selection, is showing good promise under drought<br />

conditions and attack of birds in national and on-farm trials. An early-maturing variety, ISMV 8223 derived<br />

from the Inter Variety Population, has shown good promise due to its high tillering capacity. Work on hybrid<br />

breeding has started, but there is a lack of male-sterile lines for producing suitable hybrids for the drier areas of<br />

Sudan. Efforts are in progress to introduce and breed new male-sterile lines in cooperation with ICRISAT<br />

Center.<br />

Discussion<br />

Five papers were presented in this session: two covered aspects of millet production in the drier areas of<br />

sub-Saharan Africa, two others discussed production aspects in the arid and semi-arid areas of India, and the<br />

last brought together the characteristics of the rainfall variability in the two subcontinents. Discussion<br />

centered on three aspects: the susceptibility of millet to temperature and drought stress, plant density in drier<br />

areas, and intercropping in these areas.<br />

A comment was made that pearl millet in Botswana exhibits good tolerance to drought stress only when<br />

tempertures are moderate. When temperatures are higher, the performance is poorer. Researchers in India<br />

indicated that it was generally difficult to separate the effects of drought and temperature stresses. Nonetheless,<br />

as selection for drought tolerance is generally carried out when temperatures are higher, better performing<br />

materials under these conditions are likely to tolerate drought stress in association with higher<br />

temperatures.<br />

Farmers in Africa generally plant millet in widely-spaced hills to mitigate risk. The practice of selecting<br />

breeding lines from row-spaced plants, or high-density hill plantings was questioned. The point was made that<br />

density * variety interactions normally occur under higher fertility at higher densities. This appears to account<br />

for the rather high densities used in the drier areas of Rajasthan, where reasonable fertilizer levels are used.<br />

During the subsequent discussion it was pointed out that final panicle numbers in the W A S A T approached<br />

planting densities in India, so that the actual yield-determining density is not very different from those used in<br />

India.<br />

Intercropping millet with other species is a common practice. Some participants felt that the advantage or<br />

success of intercropping should be measured by methods other than using land-equivalent ratio. Shetty<br />

emphasized that the intercropping research conducted in Mali had also calculated monetary benefits to assess<br />

the comparative worth of the different cropping systems. He said the program objective was to improve the<br />

existing cropping system and not to quantify the intercropping advantage.<br />

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