Identification of finger millet (Eleusine coracana gaertn.) variety suitable to rainfed areas of north western zone of Tamil Nadu

Breeding programme to develop high yielding long duration ragi genotype suited to rainfed conditions of the Northwestern region of Tamil Nadu was undertaken at the Regional Research Station, Paiyur from 2001 to 2006. From the yield trials conducted, a long duration high yielding variety Paiyur 2 (culture DPI 20030), a hybrid derivative of the cross VL145 x Selection 10, maturing in 110–115 days has been identified and released as State variety during 2008. It yields on an average 2527 kg/ha of grain and 4200 kg/ha of straw under rainfed condition. It has compact incurved fingers, uniform maturity, non-lodging nature and moderate protein content (7.2%). The 1000 grain weight of this culture is better (2.9 g) than GPU 28 (2.71 g).