Genetic Resources, Crop Improvement, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh-502324, India.
* Author for Correspondence: E-mail: H.Upadhyaya@cgiar.org
India is the largest pearl millet growing country with diverse climate. A groecological patterns of diversity for important agronomic traits was assessed in 5,197 pearl millet germplasm accessions originating in India and conserved at Rajendra S. Paroda Genebank at ICRISAT. Agroecological region 10, mostly covering Malwa and Bundelkhand regions, which accounted for maximum overall diversity with less representation in genebank (135 accessions), can be explored for additional diversity in the collection. Mean values and the frequency distribution suggest further exploration in agroecological region 3 for tall plant height, region 5 for short height, region 6 for high panicle exsertion and large seeds, region 8 for high number of productive tillers, region 10 for long panicles, region II for thick panicles, region 12 for late flowering and high tillering and region 14 for early flowering. Observed relationship between the climate of agroecological regions of India and the performance of pearl millet germplasm implies that the environmental factors such as rainfall, number of rainy days, temperature, soils and daily sunshine period are the important determinants of variation patterns.
Agroecological region, Climatic zone, Geographical, Variation
