Scientific Publication

Diversity in pearl millet germplasm from Central African Republic

author(s) Reddy, K N - Rao, S A - Mengesha, M H
from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
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themes
regions
  • Middle Africa
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Africa
  • World
citation

Reddy, K N and Rao, S A and Mengesha, M H (1996) Diversity in pearl millet germplasm from Central African Republic. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 43 (4). pp. 303-309. ISSN 1573-5109

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Abstract

Most of the pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) growing areas in Central African Republic (CAR) were explored by the GRD, ICRISAT in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development, CAR, Bangui and 129 pearl millet samples were collected during December 1988–January 1989. Considerable diversity was observed for several characters when 146 accessions including 17 collected by Institut francais de recherche scientifique pour le développement en coopération (ORSTOM) were evaluated at ICRISAT Asia Center (IAC), Patancheru. Time to flower ranged from 57 to 140 days with a mean of 128±1.1 days in rainy season and from 57 to 132 days with a mean of 73±0.8 days during postrainy season. Plant height ranged from 140 to 410 cm with a mean of 311±6.1 cm in the rainy season and from 75 to 310 cm with a mean of 155±2.6 cm during the postrainy season. The number of tillers varied between 1 to 6 per plant, spikes were mostly cylindrical and medium sized with a mean length of 20 cm during both seasons. They produced mostly gray or cream colored, globular grain, with partly corneous endosperm. Cluster analysis categorized accessions into similarity groups facilitating sampling a limited number of entries to represent the diversity of the pearl millet germplasm from Central African Republic

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