Characterization of Post-Rainy Season Grown Indigenous and Exotic Germplasm Lines of Sorghum for Morphological and Yield Traits

Sorghum is a major staple crop and vital for the marginal farmers in Asian and African countries. Landraces or germplasm lines adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses are the prime source of adaptive traits in the crop breeding programs. In order to assess the genetic variability, 141 exotic germplasm lines and 36 popular varieties were evaluated for eight agro-morphological traits. Wide range of values were observed for grain yield (6.6–124.4 g/plant), seed index (1.5–7.1 g/100 seeds), panicle length (8–44 cm) and panicle width (7.25 cm). High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed for grain yield per plant. The values of broad sense heritability in the sorghum core population ranged from 0.75 to 0.99. Seed weight, days to flowering, panicle width and leaf area were significantly correlated with grain yield (P ≤ 0.01). Seed weight was positively correlated with panicle width (correlation coefficient 0.31), while negatively correlated with panicle length (correlation coefficient −0.15). Cluster analysis resolved all the genotypes into four major clusters. Among germplasm lines, TSG-313 had high seed weight of 7.05 g/100 seeds, while TSG-325 had highest grain yield of 124.4 g/plant as against control variety. Germplasm lines with high heritability scores would help us to utilise them in recombination breeding

Genetic divergence among advanced lines of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) under agro climatic condition of North East Hill (NEH) region

The introduction of groundnut germplasm in North East Hill (NEH) region of India is essential to enrich genetic resources for crop improvement. The soil under NEH region is characterized.............

Genetic Enhancement Perspectives and Prospects for Grain Nutrients Density

Diet-induced micronutrient malnutrition continues to be a major challenge globally, especially in the developing world. With the ever-increasing population, it becomes a daunting task to feed millions of mouths with nutritious food. It is time to reorient agricultural systems to produce quality food to supply the calorie and nutrient requirements needed by the human body. Biofortification is the process of improving micronutrients density by genetic means. It is cheaper and sustainable and complements well with the nutrient supplementation and fortification— the short-term strategies that are currently deployed to address the micronutrient malnutrition. Sorghum is one of the important food crops globally, adapted to semi-arid tropics, and there is increased awareness on its nutritional importance. Further, there is great opportunity to improve sorghum for nutritional quality. This chapter deals about the genetic enhancement perspectives and prospects for improving the nutritional quality with main emphasis on grain micronutrient density in sorghum

Why Are Some Union Organizing Campaigns More Successful Than Others?

This paper reports a study of two union organizing campaigns in the higher education sector. Using mobilization theory, we tried to explore why one campaign was more successful than the other as measured by membership growth and recruitment of activists. We found that in the more successful campaign, the union was perceived as more effective in voicing workers' concerns, generated greater social cohesion and union identification amongst employees, was more successful in convincing employees that the university management was to blame for their problems and promoted amongst employees a stronger sense of union instrumentality. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2005.