Towards identifying novel sources of resistance to striga in pearl millet under natural field infestation

Pearl millet is an important major staple food for millions of people in Africa and Asia especially in the northern regions of Nigeria where it is consumed on daily basis in different forms. Its productivity has been severely hindered by various biotic and abiotic factors, such as Striga. Striga alone can result in yield losses of between 20 to 100% in severe cases. Breeding for resistance to this parasitic weed has been constrained due to limited source of resistance, therefore searching new sources of resistance from pearl millet germplasm is essential to facilitate progress in developing new varieties with farmers preferred traits. The present work was carried out to identify novel sources of resistance from adapted landraces and exotic germplasm for further use in breeding. Results have shown existence of pearl millet genotypes with good performance in terms of low to no Striga emergence and high yield which are important features associated with Striga resistance in Striga prone areas. This work lays the foundation for development of Striga resistant pearl millet varieties for northern savannah areas of Nigeria

Farmers’ Production Constraints, Knowledge of Striga and Preferred Traits of Pearl Millet in Jigawa State, Nigeria

A participatory rural appraisal was performed in order to identify farmers’ pearl millet production constraints, preferred varietal traits and their knowledge about Striga hermonthica. This was conducted in Dutse (Madobi and Kudai), Birninkudu (Kantoga and Kafingana) and Kiyawa (Karfawa and Shuwarin) local governments of Jigawa state Nigeria. Questionnaires and focus group discussion were used to gather information from 143 respondents. Results shows that the five most important traits selected were resistance to Striga infestation, resistance to downy mildew, tolerance to shattering, good quality local beverage, and tolerance to lodging. The major constraints to production across all the districts were low soil fertility, Striga, downy mildew, and high labour costs. Farmers had a good knowledge about Striga and their control methods across the locations were hand-pulling and or hoe weeding

Analysis of population structure and genetic diversity in a Southern African soybean collection based on single nucleotide polymorphism markers

Abstract Soybean is an emerging strategic crop for nutrition, food security, and livestock feed in Africa, but improvement of its productivity is hampered by low genetic diversity. There is need for broadening the tropical germplasm base through incorporation and introgression of temperate germplasm in Southern Africa breeding programs. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the population structure and molecular diversity among 180 temperate and 30 tropical soybean accessions using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The results revealed very low levels of molecular diversity among the 210 lines with implications for the breeding strategy. Low fixation index (FST) value of 0.06 was observed, indicating low genetic differences among populations. This suggests high genetic exchange among different lines due to global germplasm sharing. Inference based on three tools, such as the Evanno method, silhouette plots and UPMGA phylogenetic tree showed the existence of three sub-populations. The UPMGA tree showed that the first sub-cluster is composed of three genotypes, the second cluster has two genotypes, while the rest of the genotypes constituted the third cluster. The third cluster revealed low variation among most genotypes. Negligible differences were observed among some of the lines, such as Tachiyukata and Yougestu, indicating sharing of common parental backgrounds. However large phenotypic differences were observed among the accessions suggesting that there is potential for their utilization in the breeding programs. Rapid phenotyping revealed grain yield potential ranging from one to five tons per hectare for the 200 non-genetically modified accessions. Findings from this study will inform the crossing strategy for the subtropical soybean breeding programs. Innovation strategies for improving genetic variability in the germplasm collection, such as investments in pre-breeding, increasing the geographic sources of introductions and exploitation of mutation breeding would be recommended to enhance genetic gain