Performance in relation to pollination systems in pearl millet

The relative efficiencies of three pollination methods, namely, bulk sibbing, random mating and self pollination in maintaining mean performance of pearl millet populations have been investigated. These pollination methods were applied to 16 varieties and synthetics and their influence was observed on nine characters related to flowering, plant height, head length and grain yield. The present study clearly demonstrated the superiority of random pollination, even in the absence of perfect isolation distance, in both, the maintenance of the mean performance of the varieties and relative ease in multiplication of several pearl millet populations at the same location.