Penalties in yield and yield associated traits caused by stem lodging at different developmental stages in summer and spring foxtail millet cultivars

Yahya

et al. 2019

IJMS

143

One of the most chronic constraints to crop production is the grain yield reduction near the crop harvest stage by lodging worldwide. This is more prevalent in cereal crops, particularly in wheat and rice. Major factors associated with lodging involve morphological and anatomical traits along with the chemical composition of the stem. These traits have built up the remarkable relationship in wheat and rice genotypes either prone to lodging or displaying lodging resistance. In this review, we have made a comparison of our conceptual perceptions with foregoing published reports and proposed the fundamental controlling techniques that could be practiced to control the devastating effects of lodging stress. The management of lodging stress is, however, reliant on chemical, agronomical, and genetic factors that are reducing the risk of lodging threat in wheat and rice. But, still, there are many questions remain to be answered to elucidate the complex lodging phenomenon, so agronomists, breeders, physiologists, and molecular biologists require further investigation to address this challenging problem.

Section: Morphological Traits and Their Responses Under Lodging Stmentioning

confidence: 94%

Improving Lodging Resistance: Using Wheat and Rice as Classical Examples

Yahya

et al. 2019

IJMS

143

Trends in Plant Science

“…Given the availability of these resources, small millet breeding programs presently focus on resolving production constraints. Lodging and seed-shattering are major problems in millet cultivation [ 43 ], and in kodo millet, mutation-breeding has shown promising results to develop improved non-lodging varieties [ 44 ]. In addition, there are specific genetic traits of interest that have received less research attention.…”

Section: Mainstreaming Millets For Ensuring Multiple Securities Durinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 54. ], and addressing the issues of lodging and seed-shattering [ 43 , 55 ]. A recent study also reported an increased incidence of insect pests, wherein up to 150 different species were found to attack millets at different growth and developmental stages [ 31 ].…”

Section: Mainstreaming Millets For Ensuring Multiple Securities Durinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Millets for Enduring Food Security Amidst Pandemics

Muthamilarasan

Prasad

2021

125

Food security is an ongoing problem, and current staple foods are not sufficient to overcome challenges such as the present COVID-19 pandemic. We propose here that small millets have the potential to become new staple crops, especially in hunger hotspots. Currently, the absence of intensification of millet farming, lack of deployment of genetic tools for trait improvement, and the need for optimization of storage and supply chains limit crop production. We highlight a roadmap to strengthen small millet cultivation, such as identifying varieties suitable for particular environments and targeting trait improvement using genetic and genomic approaches. These approaches will help to combat hunger and malnutrition and also economically benefit the farmers and stakeholders involved in small millet cultivation amidst the ongoing pandemic.

“…In addition to drought, lodging is major problem in all small millets, mainly due to their soft stalk, crop management and environmental factors [146,171,175]. There is no direct estimate of yield loss in small millets due to lodging, [161]. It occurs due to the bending of plants at maturity due to higher panicle weight, soft stalk and weak anchorage roots [162].…”

Section: Small Millets Improvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and genomic resources, and breeding for accelerating improvement of small millets: current status and future interventions

Vetriventhan

Azevedo

Upadhyaya

et al. 2020

Nucleus

120

Current agricultural and food systems encourage research and development on major crops, neglecting regionally important minor crops. Small millets include a group of small-seeded cereal crops of the grass family Poaceae. This includes finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, little millet, teff, fonio, job's tears, guinea millet, and browntop millet. Small millets are an excellent choice to supplement major staple foods for crop and dietary diversity because of their diverse adaptation on marginal lands, less water requirement, lesser susceptibility to stresses, and nutritional superiority compared to major cereal staples. Growing interest among consumers about healthy diets together with climate-resilient features of small millets underline the necessity of directing more research and development towards these crops. Except for finger millet and foxtail millet, and to some extent proso millet and teff, other small millets have received minimal research attention in terms of development of genetic and genomic resources and breeding for yield enhancement. Considerable breeding efforts were made in finger millet and foxtail millet in India and China, respectively, proso millet in the United States of America, and teff in Ethiopia. So far, five genomes, namely foxtail millet, finger millet, proso millet, teff, and Japanese barnyard millet, have been sequenced, and genome of foxtail millet is the smallest (423-510 Mb) while the largest one is finger millet (1.5 Gb). Recent advances in phenotyping and genomics technologies, together with available germplasm diversity, could be utilized in small millets improvement. This review provides a comprehensive insight into the importance of small millets, the global status of their germplasm, diversity, promising germplasm resources, and breeding approaches (conventional and genomic approaches) to accelerate climate-resilient and nutrient-dense small millets for sustainable agriculture, environment, and healthy food systems.