Variability for Productivity and Nutritional Traits in Germplasm of Kodo Millet, an Underutilized Nutrient-Rich Climate Smart Crop

Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum L.) is an important drought-tolerant crop cultivated on marginal soils under diverse environmental conditions. Its grains are nutritionally superior to those of major cereals. Knowledge of the variability in agronomic and nutritional traits is important to identify germplasm for use in crop improvement and by farmers. Two hundred kodo millet accessions were evaluated in 2 yr during the rainy season to assess variability for morphoagronomic and grain nutritional traits and to identify high grain-yielding and nutrient-rich accessions. Large variability was observed for important traits including days to maturity, grain yield, and Fe, Zn, Ca, and protein content with moderate to high heritability. Three kodo millet races did not differ significantly for grain yield or Fe, Zn, Ca, and protein content. For Zn, Fe, protein, and Ca, 78.5, 75.0, 67.5, and 54.0% of accessions, respectively, were consistent between the years, indicating the relative sensitivity of these nutrients to the environment and genotype × environment interaction. Considering data of both the years separately, 50 promising trait-specific accessions were identified, including those for early maturity (8 accessions), greater 100-seed weight (10), high grain yield (15), Fe (8), Zn (14), Ca (6) and protein content (7), and 10 with a combination of agronomic and nutritional traits. The extensive multilocation evaluation of these high-yielding, nutrient-rich accessions would be useful to identify promising genotypes for direct cultivar release or for use in crop improvement to contribute to the food and nutritional security of resource-poor farmers in a changing climate scenario

Little Millet, Panicum sumatrense, An Under-utilized Multipurpose Crop

Little millet is a native crop of India, and well adapted to varied soil and environmental conditions, short duration with considerable within species diversity, and has huge potential to produce good grain yield and high biomass with limited water supply under marginal lands of Indian condition. To assess the grain and biomass yield potentials, 200 accessions, including core collection (56) were evaluated in an alpha-design using two replications. The residual maximum likelihood (REML) analysis indicated that variance due to genotypes was significant for important traits including grain and biomass yields. A large variability was observed for days to flowering (range 38 to 97 days), plant height (94 to 198 cm), basal tillers (7.8 to 13.32), grain yield (5 to 12 g plant-1) and dry matter yield (23 to 159 g plant-1). Accessions belonging to race robusta were late flowering (79 days after sowing), taller (167 cm) and having higher dry matter yield (88 g plant-1) and slightly greater grain yield (7.8 g plant-1) than that of race nana. Accessions producing higher grain yield (>10 g plant-1; IPMr# 1021, 841, 1017, 1063, 983, 712, 1040) and for higher dry matter yield (>133 g plant-1; IPMr# 858, 1043, 1070, 1063, 877) were identified. Due to its short duration and high biomass yield, little millet an under-utilized crop has potential as bioenergy crop besides providing food and fodder. Research is in progress to assess sequence variations linked with grain and biomass yields, and other important agronomic traits

Genetic and Genomic Resources for Grain Cereals Improvement

Genetic and Genomic Resources For Cereals Improvement is the first book to bring together the latest available genetic resources and genomics to facilitate the identification of specific germplasm, trait mapping, and allele mining that are needed to more effectively develop biotic and abiotic-stress-resistant grains. As grain cereals, including rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, and millets constitute the bulk of global diets, both of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, there is a greater need for further genetic improvement, breeding, and plant genetic resources to secure the future food supply. This book is an invaluable resource for researchers, crop biologists, and students working with crop development and the changes in environmental climate that have had significant impact on crop production. It includes the latest information on tactics that ensure that environmentally robust genes and crops resilient to climate change are identified and preserved. Provides a single-volume resource on the global research work on grain cereals genetics and genomics Presents information for effectively managing and utilizing the genetic resources of this core food supply source Includes coverage of rice, wheat, maize, barley, sorghum, and pearl, finger and foxtail millets

Ensuring the genetic diversity of sorghum

Sorghum is a staple food crop for millions of the poorest and most food-insecure people in the semi-arid tropics, and ensuring its diversity and conservation is therefore important for global food and nutritional security. This chapter discusses the taxonomy of sorghum, in situ and ex situ germplasm conservation and diversity, the factors shaping sorghum diversity, geographical distribution of sorghum germplasm, germplasm gap analysis, and the use of cultivated and wild genepool of sorghum to enhance crop yields and broaden the genetic base of sorghum cultivars

Diversity and trait-specific sources for productivity and nutritional traits in the global proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) germplasm collection

Proso millet is an important short-duration crop that adapts well to varied climatic conditions and is grown worldwide for food, feed and fodder purposes. Owing to a lack of genetic improvement, the crop has experienced no yield improvement and provides low income to farmers. In this study, 200 accessions of proso millet originating in 30 countries were evaluated in two rainy seasons to assess phenotypic diversity for morpho-agronomic and grain nutritional traits and to identify high grain-yielding and grain nutrient-rich accessions. Proso millet diversity was structured by geographical region, by country within region, and by racial group. Race patentissimum showed high diversity and ovatum low diversity, and diverged widely from each other. The lowest divergence was observed between races compactum and ovatum. Eighteen high grain-yielding, 10 large-seeded, and 26 two or more grain nutrients-rich accessions were identified, and highly diverse pairs of accessions within and between trait groups were identified. They included IPm 9 and IPm 2661 for high grain yield and large seed size; and IPm 2069, IPm 2076, and IPm 2537 for high Fe, Zn, Ca, and protein contents. IPm 2875 had a seed coat that is readily removed by threshing. This study provides valuable information to proso millet researchers about agronomic and nutritional traits in accessions that could be tested for regional adaption and yield for direct release as cultivars, and could be used in breeding for developing high grain-yielding and nutrient-rich cultivars

Underutilized Climate-Smart Nutrient Rich Small Millets for Food and Nutritional Security

Small millets such as finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, kodo millet, little millet and barnyard millet are considered as climate-smart and nutrient rich crops. They have diverse adaptation and play an important role in food and nutritional security in rural households in areas where these crops are grown globally. However, their presence in the food basket has been declining over the years, mainly because of the increased availability of rice and wheat, lack of crop improvement efforts in developing high yielding cultivars, and lack of modern technologies for processing and utilization. Over the last few years, there is an increasing recognition of their nutrient composition and benefits as healthy food. Considering their diverse adaption and agronomic and health benefits, small millets could be an alternate/supplement crop to widen food basket to ensure food, feed and nutritional security. More research effort in germplasm collecting, conserving, evaluating and utilizing, and developing high yielding cultivars, processing and utilization technologies, and policy innervations are required to promote small millets cultivation, and for food and nutritional security of vulnerable population under climate change scenario for sustainable agriculture

Open Primary Button Versus Laparoscopic Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy: Results From a Case-control Study.

OBJECTIVES: Open primary balloon gastrostomy (PBG) presents a potential alternative to percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) in children as it obviates the need for change under general anaesthetic; however, the complication profile of PBG compared to PEG is not well defined. Previous series comparing the two have been hampered by the groups not being equivalent. Our paediatric surgical centre has offered PBG as an alternative PEG since 2014. We used a matched case-control study to compare outcomes for PBG and PEG. METHODS: Patients undergoing PBG were used as "cases" and matched 1:3 by age and diagnosis to patients undergoing PEG, demographics, and clinical data as "controls." Primary outcome was rate of complications classified according to Clavien-Dindo (I-V). Secondary outcomes included time to feed and length of stay. Non-parametric, categorical and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Data here presented as median with interquartile range (IQR). RESULTS: We included 140 patients (35 PBG:105 PEG). The 2 groups were comparable for sex, weight at surgery, and follow-up duration. Median operative time was longer for PBG (43 min [IQR 36.5-61.5] vs 27.5 min [18.25-47.75], P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated a statistically significant, higher incidence of symptomatic granulation tissue in PBG (10 [29%] vs 6 [6%], P = 0.0008), this remained significant on multivariate analysis (OR 7.56 [2.33-23.5], P = 0.001), no other complication remained significant. The overall complication rate was not statistically different. CONCLUSIONS: PBG and PEG have similar overall complication rates; however, PBG appears to have a higher incidence of granulation tissue. This observation must be weighed against the need for further general anaesthetic which is not insignificant in medically complex children

Key access and utilization descriptors for chickpea genetic resources

This minimum list consists of an initial set of characterization and evaluation descriptors for chickpea utilization.This strategic set of descriptors, together with passport data, will become the basis for the global accession level information portal being developed by Bioversity International with the financial support of the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT). It will facilitate access to and utilization of chickpea accessions held in genebanks and does not preclude the addition of further descriptors, should data subsequently become available

Sorghum Germplasm Resources Characterization and Trait Mapping

Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop mostly grown for food, feed, fodder, and bioenergy purposes, and a staple for over 500 million resource-poor people in marginal environments. Globally, over 236,000 sorghum germplasm accessions have been conserved in genebanks, of which the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India and the Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, Southern Regional Plant Introduction Station, University of Georgia, USDA-ARS, together conserve about 32 % of the total global sorghum collections. Germplasm diversity representative subsets such as core and mini core collections and a genotyping-based reference set have been established in sorghum providing access to large diversity. The sorghum mini core collection established at the ICRISAT is being widely used for identification of sources for resistance to various biotic and abiotic stresses, and for agronomic and grain nutritional traits. Large genetic and genomic resources are available in sorghum, and resequencing of diverse germplasm resources including the mini core collection and wild and weedy relatives will provide researchers opportunities to relate sequence variations with phenotypic traits of interest and their utilization in sorghum improvement. Genomewide association mapping studies have identified genomic regions that are associated with important agronomic traits and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. High-throughput phenotyping platforms/technologies are required for precise phenotyping to attain greater genetic gains. The current status of germplasm, its characterization and utilization has been summarized in this chapter