ICRISAT pearl millet scientists’ field day

With the growing global need for climate-resilient crops, scientists attended an ICRISAT pearl millet field day to select enhanced pearl millet bred by the globally leading drylands Institute.

Figure: Scientists select breeding material from 17,000 plots made available at ICRISAT.

A total of 81 scientists and breeders (30 from 21 public organizations and 51 from 26 private organizations) visited ICRISAT’s fields – rich in crop diversity - to select material for hybrid pearl millet development. ​

Pearl millet traits being increasingly sought include improved taste, longer flour shelf life, greater drought, and disease tolerance and forage varieties with higher protein and digestibility qualities.

Global participants

The groups which included participants from Japan, Brazil, Mali and India were welcomed by Dr SK Gupta, Principal Scientist of Pearl Millet breeding research at ICRISAT.

During the two-day biennial event held from the 3rd to the 4th of October, more than 17,000 breeding plots were made available for the breeders to select desirable traits and adaptations.

ICRISAT-bred parental lines as well as progenies at various stages of development were on display for the participants. Samples from 11,000 pearl millet breeding plots were selected of which 2,000 represented unique breeding plots that were selected by the participants.

See more https://pressroom.icrisat.org/breeders-seek-climate-resilient-pearl-millet-with-better-food-fodder-traits