Small millets are nutri-rich, climate-resilient food and fodder crops. They include finger millet, proso millet, foxtail millet, little millet, kodo millet, browntop millet, and barnyard millet. They are self-pollinated crops and belong to the family Poaceae. Hence, to widen the genetic base, the creation of variation through artificial hybridization is a prerequisite. Floral morphology, size, and anthesis behavior cause major hindrances in recombination breeding through hybridization. Manual emasculation of florets is practically very difficult; therefore, the contact method of hybridization is widely followed. However, the success rate of obtaining true F1s is 2% to 3%. In finger millet, hot water treatment (52°C) for 3 to 5 min causes temporal male sterility. Chemicals such as maleic hydrazide, gibberellic acid, and ethrel at different concentrations aid in inducing male sterility in finger millet. Partial-sterile (PS) lines developed at the Project Coordinating Unit, Small Millets, Bengaluru are also in use. The percent seed set in crosses derived from PS lines ranged from 27.4 to 49.4, with an average of 40.10%. In proso millet, little millet, and browntop millet, apart from contact method, hot water treatment, hand emasculation, and the USSR method of hybridization are also followed. A newly developed modified crossing method known as the Small Millets University of Agricultural Sciences Bengaluru (SMUASB) method in proso and little millets has a success rate of 56% to 60% in obtaining true hybrids. Hand emasculation and pollination under the greenhouse and growth chamber in foxtail millet with a success rate of 75% seed set is suggested. In barnyard millet, hot water treatment (48°C to 52°C) for 5 min followed by the contact method is often practiced. Kodo millet being cleistogamous, mutation breeding is widely followed to create variation. Most commonly, hot water treatment is followed in finger millet and barnyard millet, SMUASB in proso, and little millet. Although no specific method is suitable for all small millets, it is essential to identify a trouble-free technique that produces maximum crossed seeds in all the small millets.

Sixty four french bean genotypes were analyzed with 15 microsatellite markers to test variation. Among the total 15 SSR primers used, 10 primers were polymorphic and 5 were monomorphic. Of the 15 SSR primers used, 10 primer pairs showed polymorphism. The number of alleles produced by different primers ranged from two to four. The high level of polymorphism (66.66%) was obtained. The cluster construction based on SSR marker data revealed significant genetic variation among the genotypes. SSR marker system showed high dissimilarity among the french bean genotypes. Cluster diagram constructed using polymorphic markers identified two major clusters. All exotic collections, landraces, local types and released varieties were grouped in same cluster with some indigenous collection, whereas cluster A comprised only of indigenous collection.

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A new leaf blight disease of browntop millet (Brachiaria ramosa) was noticed during rainy season (Kharif) 2018 at small millet experimental field, University of Agricultural Sciences, Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK), Bengaluru, India. To assess the disease severity, an intensive roving survey was conducted during the 2019 cropping season. Based on the morphological characterization, the causal agent of leaf blight disease was identified as Bipolaris spp. Further sequencing and combined gene analysis of ITS (internal transcribed spacer of rDNA), GAPDH (glyceraldehyde 3‐phosphate dehydrogenase) and LSU (large subunit) of all the nine isolates confirmed the pathogen as B. setariae. Pathogenicity study showed that all the isolates were pathogenic and caused leaf blight symptoms on browntop millet. The B. setariae isolates showed marked variability with respect to disease incidence on browntop millet (cv. Dundu korale) under artificial inoculation conditions. However, the host range was limited only to browntop millet and found non‐pathogenic to other six small millets examined. To our knowledge, this is the first completely described study on characterization of B. setariae causing leaf blight disease of browntop millet in India.

The hardening of in vitro raised plantlets is essential for better survival and successful establishment. In the present study an attempt was made to find out the best ex vitro condition (single shade net and double shade net) for hardening of five different clones of sugarcane. The effect of temperature, light intensity and humidity on hardening of elite sugarcane genotypes were evaluated under two different hardening conditions. The results obtained in the present investigation concluded that both the ex vitro acclimatization conditions showed almost similar effect on number of leaves per plant. However, for chlorophyll content (mg/g), root characters, viz. number of roots, root length (cm), root volume (cm3) and survival ability, double shade net was found to be optimum for all the genotypes, viz. CoVC 09-61-02, CoVC 07-06-05, CoVC 09-61-07, CoC 671 and CoVC 10-38-07. Whereas, CoVC 07-06-05 and CoC 671 produced optimum shoot length under single shade net. Hence, it is clear that the double shade net served as better hardening condition as revealed from better survival and development of appropriate morphological characters of all the sugarcane clones.