One hundred and sixteen forage type hybrid parents (seed and pollinator parents) were investigated at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India, in summer seasons of 2015 and 2016 for estimating inter-relationships between forage quantity and quality traits and their direct and indirect effects. Significant negative correlation but of low value was found between crude protein (CP), In vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) and dry forage yield (DFY). The direct and indirect effect of these forage quantity related traits on the DFY and other forage quality related traits on IVOMD was investigated in pearl millet. Path analysis revealed that total green forage yield (TGFY) had highest positive direct effect on DFY for forage quantity traits followed by plant height (PH). For forage quality traits, metabolizable energy (ME) had highest direct effect on IVOMD in both the cuts. CP and cellulose also had positive direct effects on IVOMD in both the cuts.
A set of 116 pearl millet hybrid parents was evaluated in two summer seasons for 30 forage specific morphological and quality traits. Green forage yield (GFY) ranged from 15.0 to 29.0 t/ha at first cut and 12.0 to 42.0 t/ha at second cut, while the dry forage yield (DFY) ranged from 3.0 to 6.0 t/ha at first cut and 5.0 to 9.0 t/ha at second cut. Important forage quality traits like stover nitrogen varied from 1.84 to 2.34% at first cut and 1.77 to 2.00% at second cut, while metabolizable energy (ME) ranged from 7.42 to 7.76 MJ/kg at first cut and 6.95 to 7.68 MJ/kg at second cut. In vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) varied from 54.0 to 56.0% at first cut and 51.0 to 55.0% at second cut. Pollinator parents showed higher mean values for most of the forage traits than the seed parents. Small but significant negative correlation was found between crude protein (CP), IVOMD and DFY indicating that modifications are needed to breed for higher forage biomass coupled with better forage quality traits. Hierarchical cluster analysis based on forage specific morphological and quality traits delineated 116 pearl millet hybrid parents into 6 distinct clusters. This evaluation identified clusters of hybrid parents having high mean values for specific promising forage quality traits, this information can be used for developing promising forage-type hybrids in pearl millet.
Pearl millet is an important food and fodder crop cultivated in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia, and is now expanding to other regions for forage purpose. This study was conducted to better understand the forage quantity and quality traits to enhance the feed value of this crop. Two sets of pearl millet hybrids (80 single cross hybrids in Set-I and 50 top cross hybrids in Set-II) along with their parents evaluated multi-locationally for the forage-linked traits under multi-cut (two cuts) system revealed significant variability for the forage traits in the hybrids and parents. The mean better parent heterosis (BPH) for total dry forage yield (TDFY) was 136% across all the single cross hybrids and 57% across all the top cross hybrids. The mean BPH for in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) varied from −11 to 7% in the single cross hybrids and −13 to 11% in the top cross hybrids across cuts. The findings of TDFY and IVOMD heterosis in these sets indicated the potential of improvement of the hybrid cultivars for forage quantity and quality in forage pearl millet. The parental lines single cross parent (SCP)-L02, SCP-L06, and top cross parent (TCP)-T08 found superior in the forage quantity and quality traits can be utilized in the future breeding programs. Most of the forage traits were found to be controlled by using the non-additive gene action. A diverse panel of 105 forage-type hybrid parents (Set-III) genotyped following genotyping by sequencing (GBS) and phenotyped for crude protein (CP) and IVOMD under multi-cuts for 2 years identified one stable significant single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on LG4 for CP, and nine SNPs for IVOMD distributed across all the linkage groups except on LG2. The identified loci, once validated, then could be used for the forage quality traits improvement in pearl millet through marker-assisted selection.
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