Breeding Cultivars for Heat Stress Tolerance in Staple Food Crops

Food and nutritional security will be worsened by climate change-induced high temperatures, droughts and reduced water availability in most agricultural food crops environments, particularly in developing countries. Recent evidences indicate that countries in the southern hemisphere are more vulnerable to food production due to greater frequency of extreme weather events. These challenges can be addressed by: (i) adoption of climate mitigation tools in agricultural and urban activities; (ii) development of heat and drought tolerant cultivars in major food crops; (iii) bringing back forgotten native minor food crops such as millets and root crops; and (iv) continued investment in agricultural research and development with the strong government policy support on native crops grown by small holder farmers. The native crops have inherent potential and traits to cope with adverse climate during the course of its evolution process. Therefore, diversifying the crops should be a prime framework of the climate-smart agriculture to meet the global food and nutritional security for which policy-driven production changes are highly required in developing countries. The adverse effects of climate change on agricultural production need to be addressed by multidisciplinary team and approaches through strong network of research consortium including private sectors and multinational governments for global impact

Association of grain iron and zinc content with other nutrients in pearl millet germplasm, breeding lines, and hybrids

Micronutrient deficiency is most prevalent in developing regions of the world, including Africa and Southeast Asia where pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) is a major crop. Increasing essential minerals in pearl millet through biofortification could reduce malnutrition caused by deficiency. This study evaluated the extent of variability of micronutrients (Fe, Zn, Mn, and Na) and macronutrients (P, K, Ca, and Mg) and their relationship with Fe and Zn content in 14 trials involving pearl millet hybrids, inbreds, and germplasm. Significant genetic variability of macronutrients and micronutrients was found within and across the trials (Ca: 4.2–40.0 mg 100 g−1 , Fe: 24–145 mg kg−1 , Zn: 22–96 mg kg−1 , and Na: 3.0–63 mg kg−1 ). Parental lines showed significantly larger variation for nutrients than hybrids, indicating their potential for use in hybrid parent improvement through recurrent selection. Fe and Zn contents were positively correlated and highly significant (r = 0.58–0.81; p 0.60) for multiple grain minerals provide good selection accuracy prospects for genetic enhancement. A highly positive significant correlation between Fe and Zn and the nonsignificant correlation of grain macronutrients and micronutrients with Fe and Zn suggest that there is scope to achieve higher levels of Fe/Zn simultaneously in current pearl millet biofortification efforts without affecting other grain nutrients. Results suggest major prospects for improving multiple nutrients in pearl millet

Tester Effect on Combining Ability and Its Relationship with Line Performance per se for Grain Iron and Zinc Densities in Pearl Millet

Development of inbred lines with high general combining ability (GCA) is an important aspect of hybrid breeding research. Although broad-based open-pollinated populations (varieties and composites) are widely used to assess GCA of inbred lines and population progenies, identification of the most effective testers has remained a continuing challenge. Two broad-based and diverse populations of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] were crossed with 14 diverse inbred lines in each of two experiments to produce 56 topcross hybrids, which were evaluated along with their parental lines for grain Fe and Zn densities. Results showed that there was highly significant and moderately high positive correlation between the topcross hybrid performance per se (a measure of GCA) produced with the two testers, both for Fe and Zn densities in both experiments. However, the correlation between performance per se of lines and their topcross hybrids averaged over both testers (giving more reliable estimates of GCA than individual testers) was even higher for both micronutrients and in both experiments. Thus, while each tester was effective in identifying 30 to 35% of the top-ranking high general combiners as reflected in topcross hybrid performance, line performance per se was even more effective in identifying these top-ranking combiners for both micronutrients in both experiments, indicating that based on performance per se lines can be selected for high GCA of Fe and Zn densities in pearl millet

Conventional and Molecular Breeding Approaches for Biofortification of Pearl Millet

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is an essential diet of more than 90 million people in the semi-arid tropics of the world where droughts and low fertility of soils cause frequent failures of other crops. It is an important nutri-rich grain cereal in the drier regions of the world grown on 26 mha by millions of farmers (IFAD 1999; Yadav and Rai 2013). This makes pearl millet the sixth most important crop in the world and fourth most important food crop of the India, next to rice, wheat, and maize with annual cultivation over an area of ~8 mha. Pearl millet is also primary food crop in sub-Saharan Africa and is grown on 15 mha (Yadav and Rai 2013). The significant increase in productivity of pearl millet in India is attributed to development and adoption of hybrids of early to medium duration maturity. More than 120 diverse hybrids/varieties have been released till date for various production environments. The heterosis breeding and improved crop management technologies increased productivity substantially achieving higher increased production of 9.80 mt in 2016–2017 from 2.60 mt in 1950–1951 in spite of declined of area under the crop by 20–30% over last two decades (Yadav et al. 2012)

Not Available

Evaluation of performance of different sunflower hybrids for productivityNot AvailableUAS RaichurAICRP (Sunflower