Chakrapani Babu

Background: Narrow genetic base and lack of exploitable variation have become a major constraint for yield improvement in greengram. Identifying genetically superior parents and breeding scheme to be adopted become a pre-requisite for the development of elite cultivars. Thereby, blending the knowledge on gene action and combining ability plays a key role. Materials: Combining ability analysis was carried out in twenty-five crosses derived out of Line x Tester mating design using 5 lines and 5 testers. The hybrids, parents and the check variety were evaluated in a RBD with two replications and ten quantitative characters were recorded. Result: Non-additive gene action was found to be prevalent for the quantitative traits observed. Exploring the per se and gca effects, COGG13-39 and VGG18-002 were adjudged as the best parents and the crosses involving above parents will be productive for synthesizing a dynamic population with superior recombinants. Meanwhile, exploring the per se, sca and heterosis, the best specific crosses identified for seed yield/plant and pods per plant were, V2709 x GAM5 and COGG13-39 x VGG16-058. They can be further exploited to obtain transgressive segregants for higher yield, bold seeds and bruchid resistance through appropriate breeding strategy.

Finger millet is an important drought-tolerant and grain-nutrient dense food crop grown in semi-arid regions in Asia and Africa. The forage is used as a source of dry roughage for feeding livestock. In this study, the finger millet diversity panel (310 accessions and four controls) representing the global collection of the finger millet germplasm conserved at the ICRISAT genebank was assessed for forage quality and diversity in the years 2018 and 2019. Results of the study suggested that finger millet can generate stover yield ranging from 2890 to 10,779 kg ha⁻¹. Finger millet forage contained 6.47% to 8.15% of crude protein, >90% of dry matter content, 11.47% to 14.17% of ash content, 62.36% to 67.73% of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), 33.07% to 38.37% of acid detergent fiber (ADF), 3.95% to 4.80% of acid detergent lignin (ADL), 6.18% to 6.89% of metabolizable energy (ME) and 45.21% to 49.09% of in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) with the grain yield of 810 to 3698 kg ha⁻¹ at maturity stage. The per se performance between the races, regions, and biological status has been performed and differed significantly for important traits. The 314 accessions were grouped into five clusters based on the performance for food-feed traits. Except for crude protein, there was a positive relationship between forage quality-positive traits and grain yield, indicating that agronomic and forage quality traits could be improved simultaneously. The top 10 promising accessions for important forage quality traits and accessions with multiple forage quality traits were identified. This study provides a detailed understanding of the variability that exists in forage quality traits in crop residues and their association with agronomic traits in the finger millet germplasm. The identified top-performing accessions would be the key genetic resources for developing dual-purpose cultivars and the information from this study will be useful for future finger millet food-feed trait improvement.

A high green fodder yielding fodder cowpea culture TNFC 0924 bred and developed in the Department of Forage Crops, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore was released as Fodder cowpea CO 9 during 2016. It is a cross derivative of CO 5 and Bundel Lobia 2. This culture was identified owing to its superior performance in the Station trials conducted from 2010 to 2012. It was evaluated in OFT and MLT. Simultaneously it was tested in AICRP trials during 2012 and 2013. TNFC 0924 had performed better for green fodder and dry matter yield besides higher protein content than the check. Reduced fibre portions like crude fibre (19.9%), Acid Detergent Fibre (28.0) and Neutral Detergent Fibre (34.0) confers increased palatability, digestibility and intake rate. It is moderately resistant to Yellow Mosaic Virus and resistant to major pests. TNFC 0924 is obsessed with higher green fodder, dry matter and crude protein yield. The palatability, digestibility and intake rate is higher as compared to the check CO (FC) 8.

Correlation coefficients among sixteen characters of sugarcane comprising of yield, quality and physiological aspects were studied from data collected on 1656 progenies obtained from 39 biparental crosses. The correlation was also studied in the progenies of individual families. The pattern of character association in the families showed that number of millable canes was positively associated with clump yield in all the families. Stalk height was the next important character associated with single stalk weight and clump yield in majority of the families. The correlation of single stalk weight and stalk diameter with yield was positive in majority of the families, and the correlation between these two characters was positively significant in all the families investigated. Number of millable canes and stalk diameter were negatively associated whereas number of millable canes and stalk height had a positive correlation only in five families. A balanced combination of these three characters seems to be essential while exercising selection for yield improvement in the population. The correlation coefficient between cane yield and sucrose per cent was not significant in majority of the families. The leaf area had highly significant positive association with clump yield and its component traits such as stalk diameter and single stalk weight when the population was considered as a whole. The results of the correlation between Hand Refractometer brix and sucrose per cent indicated that, Hand Refractometer brix at 240 days can be considered as an early indicator of juice quality during selection for sucrose per cent in the seedling population and thus aiding in the selection of early maturing high quality clones