High-forage pearl millet cultivars will ensure feed security of livestock
Farmers cultivating Pearl Millet can now grow millets that are resistant to leaf spot and blight diseases, farmers in the states of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry as per the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It will, now, be possible to cultivate high-forage pearl millet cultivars to ensure feed security of their livestock.
The ICRISAT pearl millet team had worked on the development of promising multi-cut forage varieties in association with Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad.
This was driven by feedback from partners that lack of sufficient fodder was the major constraint to livestock production in smaller farming communities in the arid and semi-arid regions of India.
It resulted in the release and notification in 2020 of two forage pearl millet varieties – TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8. The two varieties can be cultivated as rainfed crops in the rainy season and as irrigated dry crops during summer.
The varieties were developed through recurrent selection breeding methodology in association with Dr T Shashikala, Forage Breeder of the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU).
Dr SK Gupta, Pearl Millet Breeder at ICRISAT, informed that based on three-year (2016-2018) multi-location evaluations in the south zone, TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8 were released for their superior performance over national and zonal checks.
