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Failure of the rice crop, or low rice yield has dire consequences for rice-dependent households, including food insecurity and malnutrition, for India’s poorest farmers in the East Indian Plateau region. Crop diversification could reduce the risks of rice production from the vagaries of rainfall and provide cash income which is not generated from subsistence rice. Being the primary household laborers women bear the brunt of these difficult conditions in patriarchal societies. For this reason we engaged with the women farmers in Bokaro and West Singhbhum in the State of Jharkhand, and Purulia in West Bengal who participated in experiments conducted with vegetable crops and legumes in the upland and medium uplands where the traditional crop is broadcasted paddy rice. We explored four different vegetable systems, (i) cucurbits (rainy/kharif) (season—June to September), (ii) growing tomatoes in the “off season” (rainy season—July to October), (iii) growing legume crops in rotation with direct sown rice (dry/rabi season—November to January), and (iv) intercropping beans with maize (rainy season—June to September). The results showed that all the above crops proved much better in terms of income to the farmers, return per person day, although the input cost varied it was higher with the new systems explored. The research with the small-holding women farmers enabled them to try new options and make informed decisions about these opportunities. This study showed that farmers can increase crop diversity and expand the area sown to non-paddy crops. The farmers are now looking for new crops where the demand exceeds the supply. Importantly this study has demonstrated that the direct involvement of communities’ in research enables the farmers to sustainability explore solutions to the future problems with limited support from the external agencies.

Anthracnose is a prevalent disease of mungbean in Asian countries and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by multiple Colletotrichum species. The high levels of anthracnose resistance in mungbean have not been studied in depth in India, but genetic resistance is desired. In this study, we identified the causal agent of mungbean anthracnose in two regions of India as Colletotrichum truncatum through morphological and molecular methods. A set of 296 mungbean mini-core accessions developed by WorldVeg was screened under a natural disease pressure from July to September (kharif season) in 2016, 2017, and 2018 in Hyderabad (a hot spot for anthracnose) to identify anthracnose resistance. Based on disease severity scores, 22 accessions were consistently anthracnose resistant under the categories of immune, highly resistant, and resistant with scores ranging from ≥1.0 to ≤3.0 during the period of study. Furthermore, based on the agronomic performance, anthracnose resistance in Hyderabad, and other desirable traits, a subset of 74 mungbean accessions was selected from 296 mini-core accessions. These accessions were evaluated under natural disease pressure from July to September in 2018 and 2019 in Palampur (another hot spot for anthracnose) to determine the variation in anthracnose resistance. Out of the 74 accessions, two accessions were resistant in 2018; in 2019, one was immune, nine were highly resistant, and 15 were resistant. Combined analysis of variance of 65 accessions common in Hyderabad and Palampur revealed highly significant effects of environment, genotype (accessions), and genotype × environment interaction on the disease severity. The combined GGE biplot analysis of data across years and locations confirmed that the seven accessions MC-24, MC-51, MC-75, MC-127, MC-207, MC-208, and MC-292 were resistant during 2016 to 2018 in Hyderabad, and only in 2019 in Palampur, and the same accessions were moderately resistant in 2018 in Palampur. The seven resistant accessions identified from both test locations could be used as potential donors in the anthracnose resistance breeding program. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .

The rich genetic diversity existing within exotic, indigenous, and diverse germplasm lays the foundation for the continuous improvement of crop cultivars. The composite collection has been suggested as a gateway to identifying superior germplasm for use in crop improvement programs. Here, a chickpea global composite collection was evaluated at five locations in India over two years for five agronomic traits to identify agronomically superior accessions. The desi, kabuli, and intermediate types of chickpea accessions differed significantly for plant height (PLHT) and 100-seed weight (100 SW). In contrast, the intermediate type differed substantially from kabuli for days to maturity (DM). Several highly significant trait correlations were detected across different locations. The most stable and promising accessions from each of the five locations were prioritised based on their superior performance over the best-performing check cultivar. Accordingly, the selected germplasm accessions of desi type showed up to 176% higher seed yield (SY), 29% lower flowering time, 21% fewer maturity days, 64% increase in PLHT, and 183% larger seeds than the check cultivar JG11 or Annigeri. The prioritised kabuli accessions displayed up to 270% more yield, 13% less flowering time, 8% fewer maturity days, 111% increase in PLHT, and 41% larger seeds over the check cultivar KAK2. While the intermediate type accessions had up to 169% better yield, 1% early flowering, 3% early maturity, 54% taller plants, and 25% bigger seeds over the check cultivar JG 11 or KAK2. These accessions can be utilised in chickpea improvement programs to develop high-yielding, early flowering, short duration, taller, and large-seeded varieties with a broad genetic base.

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is one of the world’s hardiest warmseason cereal crop cultivated for food and animal feed in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. This crop faces terminal drought during rainy and flowering-stage heat stress during summer seasons. Blast is emerging as a serious threat affecting its production and productivity in India. Using wild P. violaceum (Lam) Rich. and pearl millet cultivars, prebreeding populations were developed following backcross method. These populations were evaluated in target ecologies in India at three locations during the 2018 summer season for flowering-stage heat stress and at two locations during the 2018 rainy season for terminal drought stress.Atotal 18 introgression lines (ILs) from Population (Pop) 3 exhibited improved seed set under high heat stress vs. the cultivated parent, whereas no IL was better than the cultivated parent in Pop 4. Under rainfed conditions at Hisar and Bawal, India, 19 ILs from Pop 3 and 16 ILs from Pop 4 showed significantly higher dry fodder yield than the cultivated parents. Further, screening of ILs for five diverse pathotype isolates—Pg 45, Pg 138, Pg 186, Pg 204, and Pg 232—of blast resulted in the identification of resistant ILs. Use of these promising ILs in breeding programs will assist in developing new varieties and hybrids with improved tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. The study indicated the genetic differences between the parents involved in crossing and also highlighted the importance of precise phenotyping of wild species for target trait prior to use in prebreeding work.

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is a staple food crop of arid and semi-arid regions of Asia and Africa. Forty-five pearl millet populations of Asian and African origin were assessed for genetic diversity using 29 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The SSR-based clustering and structure analyses showed that Asian origin–Asian bred (As-As) and African origin–African bred (Af-Af) populations were distributed across seven clusters, indicating no strong relationship among populations with their geographical origin. Most of the African origin–Asian bred (Af-As) populations had a higher average number of alleles per locus than As-As or Af-Af populations, and the majority of them clustered separately from As-As or Af-Af populations, indicating that introgression of African origin breeding materials led to the development of new gene pools adapted to the Asian region. Fourteen populations representing seven clusters were crossed according to a diallel mating design to generate 91 population hybrids (seeds of direct and reciprocal crossesweremixed) and evaluated at three locations in 2016. All the 91 hybrids when partitioned into three groups based on genetic distance (GD) between parental combinations (low,moderate, and high), revealed no correlation between GD and panmictic midparent heterosis in any of the groups, indicating that grain yield heterosis cannot be predicted based on GD. Two population hybrids (GB 8735 × ICMP 87307 and Sudan I × Ugandi) exhibited high levels of yield heterosis over standard checks and can be further utilized using different breeding schemes to develop high-yielding pearl millet cultivars.

Iron deficiency chlorosis is an important abiotic stress affecting groundnut production worldwide in calcareous and alkaline soils with a pH of 7.5–8.5. To identify genomic regions controlling iron deficiency chlorosis resistance in groundnut, the recombinant inbred line population from the cross TAG 24 × ICGV 86031 was evaluated for associated traits like visual chlorosis rating and SPAD chlorophyll meter reading across three crop growth stages for two consecutive years. Thirty-two QTLs were identified for visual chlorosis rating (3.9%–31.8% phenotypic variance explained [PVE]) and SPAD chlorophyll meter reading [3.8%–11% PVE] across three stages over 2 years. This is the first report of identification of QTLs for iron deficiency chlorosis resistance- associated traits in groundnut. Three major QTLs (>10% PVE) were identified at severe stage, while majority of other QTLs were having small effects. Interestingly, two major QTLs for visual chlorosis rating at 60 days (2013) and 90 days (2014) were located at same position on LG AhXIII. The identified QTLs/markers after validation across diverse genetic material could be used in genomics-assisted breeding.

Pearl millet breeding programs can use this heterotic group information on seed and restorer parents to generate new series of pearl millet hybrids having higher yields than the existing hybrids. Five hundred and eighty hybrid parents, 320 R- and 260 B-lines, derived from 6 pearl millet breeding programs in India, genotyped following RAD-GBS (about 0.9 million SNPs) clustered into 12 R- and 7 B-line groups. With few exceptions, hybrid parents of all the breeding programs were found distributed across all the marker-based groups suggesting good diversity in these programs. Three hundred and twenty hybrids generated using 37 (22 R and 15 B) representative parents, evaluated for grain yield at four locations in India, showed significant differences in yield, heterosis, and combining ability. Across all the hybrids, mean mid- and better-parent heterosis for grain yield was 84.0% and 60.5%, respectively. Groups G12 B × G12 R and G10 B × G12 R had highest heterosis of about 10% over best check hybrid Pioneer 86M86. The parents involved in heterotic hybrids were mainly from the groups G4R, G10B, G12B, G12R, and G13B. Based on the heterotic performance and combining ability of groups, 2 B-line (HGB-1 and HGB-2) and 2 R-line (HGR-1 and HGR-2) heterotic groups were identified. Hybrids from HGB-1 × HGR-1 and HGB-2 × HGR-1 showed grain yield heterosis of 10.6 and 9.3%, respectively, over best hybrid check. Results indicated that parental groups can be formed first by molecular markers, which may not predict the best hybrid combination, but it can reveal a practical value of assigning existing and new hybrid pearl millet parental lines into heterotic groups to develop high-yielding hybrids from the different heterotic groups.

Cytoplasmic male sterility(CMS), a maternally inherited trait, provides a promising means to harness yield gains associated with hybrid vigor. In pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth], nine types of sterility‐inducing cytoplasm have been reported, of which A2 and A4 have been successfully deployed in hybrid breeding. Unfortunately, molecular mechanism of the CMS trait is poorly understood because of limited research invested. More recently, an association between a mitochondrial gene (nad7) and A4‐CMS has been demonstrated in pigeonpea; however, the mechanism underlying A2‐CMS still remains obscure. The current investigation aimed to analyze the differences in A2‐CMS line (ICPL 88039A) and its isogenic maintainer line (ICPL 88039B) at transcriptome level using next‐generation sequencing. Gene expression profiling uncovered a set of 505 genes that showed altered expression in response to CMS, of which, 412 genes were upregulated while 93 were downregulated in the fertile maintainer line vs. the CMS line. Further, gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analyses revealed association of CMS in pigeonpea with four major pathways: glucose and lipid metabolism, ATP production, pollen development and pollen tube growth, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging. Patterns of digital gene expression were confirmed by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR) of six candidate genes. This study elucidates candidate genes and metabolic pathways having potential associations with pollen development and male sterility in pigeonpea A2‐CMS. New insights on molecular mechanism of CMS trait in pigeonpea will be helpful to accelerate heterosis utilization for enhancing productivity gains in pigeonpea.

Whole‐genome resequencing (WGRS) of 396 lines, consisting of 104 hybrid parental lines and 292 germplasm lines, were used to study the molecular basis of mid‐parent heterosis (MPH) and to identify complementary heterotic patterns in pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] hybrids. The lines and hybrids were assessed for yield and yield‐related traits in multiple environments. Our analysis showed positive MPH values in 78.6% of hybrids, confirming the potential of hybrid breeding in pigeonpea. By using genome‐wide prediction and association mapping approaches, we identified 129 single nucleotide polymorphisms and 52 copy number variations with significant heterotic effects and also established a high‐yielding heterotic pattern in pigeonpea. In summary, our study highlights the role of WGRS data in the study and use of heterosis in crops where hybrid breeding is expected to boost selection gain in order to ensure global food security.

Pigeonpea is one of the important pulse crops grown in many states of India and plays a major role in sustainable food and nutritional security for the smallholder farmers. In order to overcome the productivity barrier the Translational Pigeonpea Genomics Consortium (TPGC) was established, representing research institutes from six different states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh) of India. To enhance pigeonpea productivity and production the team has been engaged in deploying modern genomics approaches in breeding and popularizing modern varieties in farmers&rsquo, fields. For instance, new genetic stock has been developed for trait mapping and molecular breeding initiated for enhancing resistance to fusarium wilt and sterility mosaic disease in 11 mega varieties of pigeonpea. In parallel, genomic segments associated with cleistogamous flower, shriveled seed, pods per plant, seeds per pod, 100 seed weight, and seed protein content have been identified. Furthermore, 100 improved lines were evaluated for yield and desirable traits in multi-location trials in different states. Furthermore, a total of 303 farmers&rsquo, participatory varietal selection (FPVS) trials have been conducted in 129 villages from 15 districts of six states with 16 released varieties/hybrids. Additionally, one line (GRG 152 or Bheema) from multi-location trials has been identified by the All India Coordinated Research Project on Pigeonpea (AICRP-Pigeonpea) and released for cultivation by the Central Variety Release Committee (CVRC). In summary, the collaborative efforts of several research groups through TPGC is accelerating genetics gains in breeding plots and is expected to deliver them to pigeonpea farmers to enhance their income and improve livelihood.

With an aim of enhancing drought tolerance using a marker‐assisted backcrossing (MABC) approach, we introgressed the “QTL‐hotspot” region from ICC 4958 accession that harbors quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for several drought‐tolerance related traits into three elite Indian chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) cultivars: Pusa 372, Pusa 362, and DCP 92‐3. Of eight simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers in the QTL‐hotspot region, two to three polymorphic markers were used for foreground selection with respective cross‐combinations. A total of 47, 53, and 46 SSRs were used for background selection in case of introgression lines (ILs) developed in genetic backgrounds of Pusa 372, Pusa 362, and DCP 92‐3, respectively. In total, 61 ILs (20 BC3F3 in Pusa 372; 20 BC2F3 in Pusa 362, and 21 BC3F3 in DCP 92‐3), with >90% recurrent parent genome recovery were developed. Six improved lines in different genetic backgrounds (e.g. BGM 10216 in Pusa 372; BG 3097 and BG 4005 in Pusa 362; IPC(L4‐14), IPC(L4‐16), and IPC(L19‐1) in DCP 92‐3) showed better performance than their respective recurrent parents. BGM 10216, with 16% yield gain over Pusa 372, has been released as Pusa Chickpea 10216 by the Central Sub‐Committees on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties of Agricultural Crops, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, for commercial cultivation in India. In summary, this study reports introgression of the QTL‐hotspot for enhancing yield under rainfed conditions, development of several introgression lines, and release of Pusa Chickpea 10216 developed through molecular breeding in India.

Seed protein content (SPC) is an important grain quality trait, which impacts the nutritional importance of pigeonpea seed in the diet of over a billion people globally. The present study was carried out to determine variation in SPC and its relationships with some agronomic traits among 23 parental lines of different types of pigeonpea mapping populations. The parental lines were evaluated under field conditions during 2014-2015 growing season. A randomised complete block design in two replications was used. Data were recorded on SPC, days to first flower (DTF), plant height at maturity (PltH), number of pods per plant (NPP), number of seeds per pod (NSP), hundred-seed weight (SW) and seed yield per plant (SY). There were significant differences among genotypes for all traits. Broad-sense heritability was 0.693 for SPC but ranged from 0.519 (NPP) to 0.999 (DTF) while genetic advance was 2.4% for SPC but ranged from 1.2 % (NSP) to 141.2 % (SY), and genetic gain ranged from 11.0 % (SPC) to 230.0 % (SY). Simple correlation showed that SPC is only significantly but negatively correlated with SW (r = -0.30, P < 0.05), while path analyses revealed that SPC is negatively associated SW and NPP but positively with DTF, PltH, NSP and SY. It is concluded that genetic variation for SPC and agronomic traits exist among pigeonpea genotypes studied. The variation is accompanied by both favourable and unfavourable relationships of SPC with the agronomic traits.

The present investigation was performed to assess genetic divergence and heterosis prediction in hybrid parents of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R Br.] using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Using 56 SSR loci, 412 alleles were detected in 147 lines with an average of 7.36 alleles per locus, and 75,007 SNP loci were detected in 117 lines. Both SSR- and SNP-based clustering and structure analysis partitioned all maintainer (B) and restorer (R) lines into two clear-cut separate groups, indicating the existence of two diverse gene pools, each representing the seed and restorer parents in pearl millet. Results of analysis of molecular variance and principal coordinate analysis also showed significant diversity between B and R lines. The correlation between parental genetic distances estimated based on SSRs and SNPs was high and significant (r = 0.58, p < .01). Similar clustering pattern of hybrid parents was observed with both marker systems, although the cost of genotyping was 41% less with SNPs than with SSRs, and the ratio of loci detected with SNPs was much higher (1:364 SSR/SNP), hence the use of SNPs is indicated over SSRs for germplasm characterization. A set of 136 hybrids (including all B × B, R × R, and B × R crosses) generated crossing 17 hybrid parents (nine B lines and eight R lines) in half diallel (without reciprocal) fashion, and evaluation at two locations revealed that the correlation between genetic distance and better parent heterosis for grain yield was moderate, positive, and significant (with SSR, 0.33, p < .01; with SNP, 0.35, p < .01), hence both SSRs and SNPs were found comparable in results for heterosis prediction.

Three bacteria, IC-59, IC-76A and IC-2002, isolated from the nodules of chickpea, were characterized for nodulation, nitrogen fixation, plant growth-promoting (PGP) and yield traits in five cultivars of chickpea such as BG256, RSG888, Subhra, K850 and ICCV2. All the bacteria produced cellulase, protease, β-1,3-glucanase, indole acetic acid, siderophore, hydro cyanic acid and 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase while none produced lipase and chitinase. The 16 S rDNA gene sequences of IC-59, IC-76A and IC-2002 were found to match closely with Rhizobium pusense, Paraburkholderia kururiensis and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, respectively. The three bacteria nodulated all the cultivars of chickpea well, amplified nifH gene and fixed nitrogen. Under greenhouse conditions at 30 and 45 days after sowing, treatment of five cultivars of chickpea with bacterial cultures IC-59, IC-76A and IC-2002, enhanced the nodule number (up to 45%, 38% and 43%), nodule weight (up to 31%, 15% and 39%), shoot weight (11%, 16% and 14%) and root weight (37%, 48% and 62%), respectively, over the un-inoculated control. At crop maturity, IC-59, IC-76A and IC-2002 were found to enhance the shoot weight (16%, 40% and 26%), pod number (37%, 69% and 81%), pod weight (17%, 45% and 49%), seed number (21%, 31% and 39%) and seed weight (14%, 56% and 65%), respectively, over the un-inoculated control. Among the five cultivars, Subhra was found to enhance most of the PGP traits when treated with the three diazotrophic bacteria. It is concluded that the three diazotrophic bacteria could be potentially exploited for improving nodulation, nitrogen fixation, PGP and yields of chickpea.

Genetic distances between hybrid parents based on phenotypic traits and molecular markers were investigated to assess their relationship with heterosis for grain and stover yield and other traits in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum [L.] R. Br.). Fifty-one hybrids developed using 101 hybrid parents (B and R lines) and showing a wide range of genetic distance between their parents based on eight phenotypic traits and 28–38 SSRs were evaluated in two sets for two seasons. The correlation between Euclidean distance (phenotypic distance, ED) and simple matching distance (molecular distance, SM) for parents of both sets was low but positive and significant (r = 0.2, P

Post flowering stalk rot (PFSR) is one of the major biotic constraints to maize production in tropical and sub-tropical environments. It is a complex disease caused by multiple pathogens, among which Fusarium moniliforme and Macrophomina phaseolina are the major ones that cause severe yield losses in the Asian tropics. A set of maize inbred lines was evaluated at two locations for Fusarium stalk rot (FSR) and Macrophomina stalk rot (MSR). Based on line evaluation trials, resistant and susceptible lines were selected and crossed following a Diallel mating design IV to study the gene action for resistance to these stalk rots and the estimating the combining ability of inbred lines. A 9 × 9 diallel (Diallel-A) produced 36 hybrids for studying FSR resistance, and a 12 × 12 diallel (Diallel-B) produced 66 hybrids to analyse the resistance towards both FSR and MSR. These hybrids were evaluated at two locations for MSR and one location for FSR with artificial inoculation. The hybrids differed significantly for FSR (p

Chickpea is a cheap source of protein and micronutrients to the small and marginal farmers living in south-Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Due to changes in climatic conditions and cropping systems, the crop is being exposed to severe drought and heat stress during its reproductive period, which leads to significant yield losses and fluctuations in grain nutrient accumulation. The study was conducted with 140 diverse genotypes under non-stress, drought, and heat stress conditions to estimate their effects on grain nutrient (protein, Fe and Zn) contents and identify the marker-trait associations. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences among genotypes for nutrient content under respective planting conditions. The seed yield was negatively associated with the grain Fe (r = -0.37, -0.25, 0.11) and Zn (r = -0.49, -0.35, -0.72) under respective planting conditions. The PCA indicated that PC1 was positively associated with grain Fe in non-stress and heat, while Zn in all planting conditions, whereas PC2 was positively influenced by protein content followed by grain yield. Cluster analysis identified eight clusters, of which cluster VI showed maximum cluster means for Fe (73 mg kg-1) and Zn (48.1 mg kg-1). The Genome-wide association study revealed, a total of 181 MTAs for grain Fe, Zn, and protein content in all three growing conditions. A total of 4, 2, and 48 SNPs for grain Fe and Zn content, whereas, 66, 46, 15 SNPs for grain protein content have shown significant association under non-stress, drought, and heat stress, respectively. One SNP each on chr1 (S1_35622241; P≤3.47×10-6) and Chr4 (S4_44607232; P≤1.35×10-5) was co-associated under drought and non-stress conditions for protein and Fe, respectively. The identified robust MTAs will be validated and used in marker-assisted selection towards the rapid development of nutrient-rich varieties.

The All India Coordinated Rice Improvement Project of ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad organizes multi-location testing of elite lines and hybrids to test and identify new rice cultivars for the release of commercial cultivation in India. Data obtained from Initial Hybrid Rice Trials of three years were utilized to understand the genotype × environment interaction (GEI) patterns among the test locations of five different agro-ecological regions of India using GGE and AMMI biplot analysis. The combined analysis of variance and AMMI ANOVA for a yield of rice hybrids were highly significant for GEI. The GGE biplots first two PC explained 54.71%, 51.54% and 59.95% of total G + GEI variation during 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively, whereas AMMI biplot PC1 and PC2 explained 46.62% in 2010, 36.07% in 2011 and 38.33% in 2012 of the total GEI variation. Crossover interactions, i.e. genotype rank changes across locations were observed. GGE biplot identified hybrids, viz. PAN1919, TNRH193, DRH005, VRH639, 26P29, Signet5051, KPH385, VRH667, NIPH101, SPH497, RH664 Plus and TNRH222 as stable rice hybrids. The discriminative locations identified in different test years were Coimbatore, Maruteru, VNR, Jammu, Raipur, Ludhiana, Karjat and Dabhoi. The AMMI1 biplot identified the adaptable rice hybrids viz., CNRH102, DRH005, NK6303, NK6320, DRRH78, NIPH101, Signet5050, BPH115, Bio452, NPSH2003, and DRRH83. The present study demonstrated that AMMI and GGE biplots analyses were successful in assessing genotype by environment interaction in hybrid rice trials and aided in the identification of stable and adaptable rice hybrids with higher mean and stable yields.

The dearth of proper delineation for energy sorghum cultivation has led to a prerequisite for evaluation and identification of test environments for the newly developed lines. This becomes of vital importance as the biomass yield is highly influenced by genotype and environmental (G × E) interactions. Several agronomic traits were considered to assess the biomass yield and the combined analysis of variance for G (genotype), L (location) and interaction effect of G × L. The variations in the yield caused by the interaction of G × L are very essential to acquire knowledge on the specific adaptation of a genotype. Thus, the multi-location trials conducted across locations and years have helped to identify the stable environments with specific adaptation for biomass sorghum. The presence of close association between the test locations suggested that the same information about the genotypes could be obtained from fewer test environments, and hence the potential to reduce evaluation costs. The two genotypes—IS 13762 and ICSV 25333—have shown stable performance for biomass traits across all the locations, in comparison with CSH 22SS (check). The top ten entries with stable and better performance for fresh biomass yield, dry biomass yield, grain yield and theoretical ethanol yield were ICSV 25333, IS 13762, CSH 22SS, IS 25302, IS 25301, IS 27246, IS 16529, DHBM2, ICSSH 28 and IS 17349.

Soil erosion and shifting cultivation are the major constraints to agriculture in the north-eastern region of India. Low acceptance of cost-intensive soil conservation technologies (e.g., terracing) calls for developing low-cost erosion control measures. Thus, a field experiment was conducted during the monsoon period of 2008 and 2009, in runoff plots on a land slope of 40% to test the hypothesis that weed cover, if properly managed, minimizes soil erosion and improves soil productivity. The treatments implemented in duplicates were: maize (Zea mays) under shifting cultivation (T1), maize on contour lines (T2), groundnut (Arachis hypogea) on upper and maize on lower half of treatment plot, with both on contour lines (T3), groundnut on contour lines (T4) and maize on contour lines with natural vegetation as buffer strips (T5). The average sediment concentration of runoff water varied from 5.20 g L−1 (T1) to 1.07 g L−1 (T5) in 2008 and from 3.84 (T1) to 0.89 g L−1 (T5) in 2009. The soil loss ranged from 20.8 (T1) to 4.7 Mg ha−1 (T5), with corresponding loss of 670–147 kg ha−1 of SOC, 6.85–1.48 kg ha−1 of available N, and 2.14–0.87 kg ha−1 of available P. Weed strips and weed mulch on the upstream side of maize rows in T5 led to formation of stable mini-terraces promoting better plant and root growth. This study indicates cover management involving selective weed retention can reduce soil erosion, favourably modify land slope and promotes soil productivity.

Genetic diversity in the breeding materials is an essential component to improve the efficiency of any crop improvement programme. In present study, 150 seed and restorer parents were evaluated for grain yield and its component traits at two diverse agro-ecologies CCSHAU-Hisar and ICRISAT-Patancheru. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among hybrid parents for all traits. Clustering of hybrid parents clearly partitioned almost all the B- and R-lines into separate groups indicating B- and R-lines to be genetically distant from each other. Further, seed (B-lines) and restorer (R-lines) parents were found distributed in four clusters each, and hybrid parents having same plant type (having similar set of specific traits) were found in same cluster. Significant numbers of hybrid parents having common parent in their pedigrees were found in same cluster. Cluster B-IV of B-lines and cluster R-III of R-lines had higher grain yield and above average performance for other grain linked traits. Grain yield was found to have highly positive significant correlation with all the traits under study for both B- and R-lines, except for effective tillers plant-1. Stover yield followed by panicle girth and panicle length had highest positive direct effect on grain yield.

Successful management and utilization of increasingly large genomic datasets is essential for breeding programs to increase genetic gain and accelerate cultivar development. To help with data management and storage, we developed a sorghum Practical Haplotype Graph (PHG) pangenome database that stores all identified haplotypes and variant information for a given set of individuals. We developed two PHGs in sorghum, one with 24 individuals and another with 398 individuals, that reflect the diversity across genic regions of the sorghum genome. 24 founders of the Chibas sorghum breeding program were sequenced at low coverage (0.01x) and processed through the PHG to identify genome-wide variants. The PHG called SNPs with only 5.9% error at 0.01x coverage - only 3% lower than its accuracy when calling SNPs from 8x coverage sequence. Additionally, 207 progeny from the Chibas genomic selection (GS) training population were sequenced and processed through the PHG. Missing genotypes in the progeny were imputed from the parental haplotypes available in the PHG and used for genomic prediction. Mean prediction accuracies with PHG SNP calls range from 0.57-0.73 for different traits, and are similar to prediction accuracies obtained with genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) or markers from sequencing targeted amplicons (rhAmpSeq). This study provides a proof of concept for using a sorghum PHG to call and impute SNPs from low-coverage sequence data and also shows that the PHG can unify genotype calls from different sequencing platforms. By reducing the amount of input sequence needed, the PHG has the potential to decrease the cost of genotyping for genomic selection, making GS more feasible and facilitating larger breeding populations that can capture maximum recombination. Our results demonstrate that the PHG is a useful research and breeding tool that can maintain variant information from a diverse group of taxa, store sequence data in a condensed but readily accessible format, unify genotypes from different genotyping methods, and provide a cost-effective option for genomic selection for any species.

Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris) of chickpea is the major limitation to chickpea production worldwide. As the nature of the pathogen is soil borne, exploitation of host plant resistance is the most suitable and economical way to manage this disease. Present study was therefore conducted with an aim to find new, stable and durable sources of resistance of chickpea against Fusarium wilt through multi-environment and multi-year screening. During 2007/2008 crop season, 130 promising genotypes having

Genetic diversity of 130 forage-type hybrid parents of pearl millet was investigated based on multiple season data of morphological traits and two type of markers: SSRs (Simple sequence repeats) and GBS identified SNPs (Genotyping by sequencing-Single nucleotide polymorphism). Most of the seed and pollinator parents clustered into two clear-cut separate groups based on marker based genetic distance. Significant variations were found for forage related morphological traits at different cutting intervals (first and second cut) in hybrid parents. Across two cuts, crude protein (CP) varied from 11% to 15%, while in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) varied from 51% to 56%. Eighty hybrids evaluated in multi-location trial along with their parents for forage traits showed that significant heterosis can be realized for forage traits. A low but positive significant correlation found between SSR based genetic distance (GD between parents of hybrid) and heterosis for most of the forage traits indicated that SSR-based GD can be used for predicting heterosis for GFY, DFY and CP in pearl millet. An attempt was made to associate marker-based clusters with forage quality traits, to enable breeders select parents for crossing purposes in forage breeding programs.

Dry root rot (DRR), caused by Macrophomina phaseolina, is a prevalent disease of mungbean in Myanmar, and an emerging problem in South Asia. The pathogen is a polyphagous necrotroph, survives in the soil for many years that results disease mitigation difficult. Managing DRR in mungbean through an integrated approach has been suggested, and the use of resistant varieties is one of the economical methods. The present study aimed to identify sources of resistance against DRR from a mungbean mini-core collection and to characterize the associated M. phaseolina isolates from India and Myanmar. Evaluation of the 296 mungbean mini-core accessions against the isolate MP1 by paper towel method identified 29 accessions with DRR resistance (disease scores: ≤ 3), and 18 of them with the consistent resistance in the repeated experiment. During the screening of 18 resistant accessions in the glasshouse, nine accessions were found DRR resistance in repeated sick pot experiments with ≤10% disease incidence. A subset of 30 accessions was selected from the mini-core collection based on their in vitro DRR reactions. These accessions were evaluated for DRR resistance in the field in Yezin, Myanmar in 2018 and 2019. Out of the 30 accessions, ten accessions were found DRR resistance with ≤10% disease incidence in both years of evaluations. Pooled analysis of percent disease incidence data of 15 accessions common in both glasshouse and field revealed the stability of accessions VI001509AG, VI001244AG, and VI001400AG for DRR resistance across years and locations. The three resistant accessions along with a susceptible check VC693088 were re-evaluated by paper towel method against nine additional M. phaseolina isolates from India (MP3-MP11). The accessions VI001509AG and VI001400AG were resistant to all nine isolates, while accession VI001244AG was resistant to MP5, MP6, and MP7 isolates. These accessions could be used in mungbean DRR resistance breeding programs.

Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) is an important pulse crop in India. A major constraint for improved productivity is the yield loss caused by mungbean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD). This disease is caused by several begomoviruses which are transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). The objective of this study was to identify the predominant begomoviruses infecting mungbean and the major cryptic species of B. tabaci associated with this crop in India. The indigenous B. tabaci cryptic species Asia II 1 was found dominant in Northern India, whereas Asia II 8 was found predominant in Southern India. Repeated samplings over consecutive years indicate a stable situation with, Mungbean yellow mosaic virus strains genetically most similar to a strain from urdbean (MYMV-Urdbean) predominant in North India, strains most similar to MYMV-Vigna predominant in South India, and Mungbean yellow mosaic India virus (MYMIV) strains predominant in Eastern India. In field studies, mungbean line NM 94 showed a high level of tolerance to the disease in the Eastern state of Odisha where MYMIV was predominant and in the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh where MYMV-Vigna was predominant, but only a moderate level of tolerance in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu. However, in Northern parts of India where there was high inoculum pressure of MYMV-Urdbean during the Kharif season, NM 94 developed severe yellow mosaic symptoms. The identification of high level of tolerance in mungbean lines such as ML 1628 and of resistance in black gram and rice bean provides hope for tackling the disease through resistance breeding.

Yield under drought stress is a highly complex trait with large influence to even a minor fluctuation in the environmental conditions. Genomics-assisted breeding holds great promise for improving such complex traits more efficiently in less time, but requires markers associated with the trait of interest. In this context, a recombinant inbred line mapping population (TAG 24 × ICGV 86031) was used to identify markers associated with quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for yield and yield related traits at two important locations of West Africa under well watered and water stress conditions. Among the traits analyzed under WS condition, the harvest index (HI) and the haulm yield (HYLD) were positively correlated with the pod yield (PYLD) and showed intermediate broad sense heritability. QTL analysis using phenotyping and genotyping data resulted in identification of 52 QTLs. These QTLs had low phenotypic variance (

In cytoplasmic genetic male sterility-based (CGMS) hybrid seed production, instability of expression of male-sterility and fertility restoration across a wide range of environments are two of the major difficulties. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the stability of male sterility of nine CGMS lines under three dates of sowing and the fertility restoration of 10 CGMS-based pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) hybrids at three different locations. Significant variability existed for pollen fertility among hybrids and sterility among cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines. All the hybrids except ICPH 3494 and ICPH 3491 exhibited high (>80%) pollen fertility across locations. Hybrids ICPH 2671, ICPH 2740, and ICPH 3933 had 100% male-fertile plants across locations. All the CMS lines had completely male-sterile plants across sowing dates. The CMS lines BRG1 A, Hy3C A, BRG3 A, and TTB7 A exhibited 100% pollen sterility at different sowing dates. The pooled analysis revealed a signific...

Chickpea is the most important pulse crop globally after dry beans. Climate change and increased cropping intensity are forcing chickpea cultivation to relatively higher temperature environments. To assess the genetic variability and identify heat responsive traits, a set of 296 F8–9 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of the cross ICC 4567 (heat sensitive) × ICC 15614 (heat tolerant) was evaluated under field conditions at ICRISAT, Patancheru, India. The experiment was conducted in an alpha lattice design with three replications during the summer seasons of 2013 and 2014 (heat stress environments, average temperature 35 °C and above), and post-rainy season of 2013 (non-stress environment, max. temperature below 30 °C). A two-fold variation for number of filled pods (FPod), total number of seeds (TS), harvest index (HI), percent pod setting (%PodSet) and grain yield (GY) was observed in the RILs under stress environments compared to non-stress environment. A yield penalty ranging from 22.26% (summer 2013) to 33.30% (summer 2014) was recorded in stress environments. Seed mass measured as 100-seed weight (HSW) was the least affected (6 and 7% reduction) trait, while %PodSet was the most affected (45.86 and 44.31% reduction) trait by high temperatures. Mixed model analysis of variance revealed a high genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) (23.29–30.22%), phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) (25.69–32.44%) along with high heritability (80.89–86.89%) for FPod, TS, %PodSet and GY across the heat stress environments. Correlation studies (r = 0.61–0.97) and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a strong positive association among the traits GY, FPod, VS and %PodSet under stress environments. Path analysis results showed that TS was the major direct and FPod was the major indirect contributors to GY under heat stress environments. Therefore, the traits that are good indicators of high grain yield under heat stress can be used in indirect selection for developing heat tolerant chickpea cultivars. Moreover, the presence of large genetic variation for heat tolerance in the population may provide an opportunity to use the RILs in future-heat tolerance breeding programme in chickpea.

The concept of pre-harvesting of crop yield using nonlinear growth models and detrended yield for developing yield forecast model is rarely employed in forecasting. A novel approach attempted in this study to use nonlinear models with different weather variables and their indices and compare them to identify a suitable forecasting model. Weather indices based regression models were developed using weather indices as independent variables whiledetrended yield (residuals) was considered as dependent variable. The approach provided reliable yield forecastabout two months before harvest.

Dry root rot (DRR) is an important emerging disease of mungbean caused by fungus Macrophomina phaseolina. The disease is seed and soil-borne and hence management is difficult. Exploitation of host resistance could be a good option to manage the disease. The objectives of this study were to characterize the isolates of M. phaseolina from three legume crops and to identify resistant sources against DRR of mungbean. Isolates of M. phaseolina from mungbean, urdbean, and vegetable soybean were identified using morphological characteristics and sequencing internal transcribed sequence (ITS) region of 18S rRNA. Isolates of M. phaseolina from urdbean and vegetable soybean were inoculated on susceptible check genotype of mungbean to assess their pathogenicity. Forty three mungbean genotypes were screened against M. phaseolina isolate of mungbean using the paper towel method to identify sources of resistance. Among these genotypes, 9 were resistant in repeated experiment, with disease score ranging from 1.9 to 3.0. Resistant genotypes showing lower disease score, namely IPM99-125, EC693368, and EC693369, were further screened using the sick pot method to confirm their resistance. Among these three genotypes, IPM99-125 showed consistently higher plant survival rate followed by EC693368 and EC693369 as compared to susceptible checks (VC3960-88, KPS1). In addition, these three genotypes were resistant when screened with two strains of M. phaseolina isolated from urdbean and vegetable soybean, with IPM99-125 having lower disease score. The mungbean genotype IPM99-125 could be useful in mungbean breeding programs to develop root rot-resistant varieties.

Key message Analysis of phenotypic data for 20 drought tolerance traits in 1–7 seasons at 1–5 locations together with genetic mapping data for two mapping populations provided 9 QTL clusters of which one present on CaLG04 has a high potential to enhance drought tolerance in chickpea improvement. Abstract Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most important grain legume cultivated by resource poor farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Drought is one of the major constraints leading up to 50 % production losses in chickpea. In order to dissect the complex nature of drought tolerance and to use genomics tools for enhancing yield of chickpea under drought conditions, two mapping populations—ICCRIL03 (ICC 4958 × ICC 1882) and ICCRIL04 (ICC 283 × ICC 8261) segregating for drought tolerance-related root traits were phenotyped for a total of 20 drought component traits in 1–7 seasons at 1–5 locations in India. Individual genetic maps comprising 241 loci and 168 loci for ICCRIL03 and ICCRIL04, respectively, and a consensus genetic map comprising 352 loci were constructed (http://cmap.icrisat.ac.in/cmap/sm/cp/varshney/). Analysis of extensive genotypic and precise phenotypic data revealed 45 robust main-effect QTLs (M-QTLs) explaining up to 58.20 % phenotypic variation and 973 epistatic QTLs (E-QTLs) explaining up to 92.19 % phenotypic variation for several target traits. Nine QTL clusters containing QTLs for several drought tolerance traits have been identified that can be targeted for molecular breeding. Among these clusters, one cluster harboring 48 % robust M-QTLs for 12 traits and explaining about 58.20 % phenotypic variation present on CaLG04 has been referred as “QTL-hotspot”. This genomic region contains seven SSR markers (ICCM0249, NCPGR127, TAA170, NCPGR21, TR11, GA24 and STMS11). Introgression of this region into elite cultivars is expected to enhance drought tolerance in chickpea. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-013-2230-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Botrytis grey mould (BGM), caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. Ex. Fr., is a destructive foliar disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) worldwide. Disease management through host-plant resistance is the most effective and economic option to manage this disease. The objective of this study was to identify new sources of resistance to BGM, validate their stability across environments and determine the magnitude of G × E interaction. One hundred and nine chickpea genotypes with moderate levels of resistance (BGM severity ≤5.0 on a 1–9 scale) were selected from the preliminary evaluation of 412 genotypes including germplasm and breeding lines under controlled environmental conditions in 2004–2005 at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India. In order to validate resistance stability, an ‘International Botrytis Grey Mould Nursery’ (IBGMN) was constituted with 25 genotypes and tested in multi-environments for BGM resistance at two locations (Gurdaspur and Pantnagar) in India for 4 years and two locations (Tarahara and Rampur) in Nepal for 3 years. Additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis showed significant genotype (G), environment (E) and G × E interaction (p < 0.0001) with largest contribution by environment (47.36%). The first two principal component axes were significant, and contributed 48.21% to the total G × E interaction. The AMMI biplot analysis allowed the selection of five genotypes ICCV 96859, ICCV 96853, ICCV 05604, ICCV 96852 and ICCV 05605 with low BGM severity (between 3.7 and 4.7 on 1–9 scale) and moderate stability. Genotype ICCV 96859 having least disease severity and moderate stability could be highlighted and exploited in chickpea resistance breeding programmes

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] is grown under a wide range of environmental conditions in India. The All India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project (AICPMIP) has the responsibility of testing and releasing pearl millet cultivars adapted to such conditions. As a part of this process, AICPMIP has divided the entire pearl millet growing regions into three different zones (A1, A, and B) based on the rainfall pattern and local adaptation of the crop. This study was conducted to define the presently used test locations into possible mega-environments and to identify essential test locations for cost-effective evaluation of pearl millet cultivars. Grain yield data of different sets of 34 to 45 medium-maturity pearl millet hybrids tested at 29 to 34 locations during 2006 to 2008 were analyzed using genotype main effects and genotype × environment interaction biplot method. Two distinct pearl millet mega-environments with consistent grouping of locations across the years and corresponding to AICPMIP’s designated A and B zones were identified. No such consistent grouping of locations corresponding to AICPMIP’s designated A1 zone was, however, observed. Based on the discriminating ability, uniqueness, and research resources, 13 locations were identified as essential test locations for evaluation across the two mega-environments. Testing at these locations appeared to provide good coverage of the whole pearl millet growing areas of India. Based on these findings, it is suggested to conduct initial yield trials at identified 13 locations across all the pearl millet growing zones represented by two mega-environments followed by testing of selected hybrids with specific adaptation in their respective adaptation zones.

The first sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] hybrids based on West African Guinea-race-derived parents were created to enhance farmer’s food security and income through increased yields. To assess their performance, eight hybrids, six experimental pure-line cultivars, one pure-line check (Lata), and a highly adapted landrace cultivar (Tieble) were evaluated in 27 farmer-managed and two on-station yield trials in Mali, West Africa, from 2009 to 2011. The hybrids were confirmed to have photoperiod sensitivity similar to the well-adapted Guinea landrace check cultivar. Genotypic differences for on-farm grain yield were highly significant and genotype × environment crossover interactions were limited. The yield superiorities of individual hybrids, relative to the landrace check, ranged from 17 to 37% over the 27 on-farm trials. The three top yielding hybrids showed 30% yield advantages across productivity levels, with absolute yield advantages averaging 380 kg ha−1 under lower (1.0–1.5 t ha−1) and 660 kg ha−1 under higher (2.0–3.5 t ha−1) productivity conditions. A mean male-parent (better parent) heterosis of 26% was observed for the four hybrids having Lata as a male parent. As the hybrids studied here were obtained with a low intensity of selection using a limited number of parents, even greater yield superiorities may be attained with development of distinct parental pools and scaled-up hybrid breeding.

Transgenic research using the DREB group of transcription factors has received much attention in developing drought-tolerant and climate-ready varieties of crop plants. While many reports have demonstrated increased tolerance to water deficits under laboratory and greenhouse conditions, only a few have tested possible effects under field conditions, with limited success in most cases. Here, we present evidence of a transgenic solution for enhanced drought tolerance in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.), which is an important grain legume and a valuable cash crop for smallholder and resource-poor farmers occupying the largest portion of the farming systems in low income food deficit countries. The presence, integration, expression and inheritance of the transgene in advancing generations of the transgenic peanut plants were assessed using PCR, Southern blot, inverse-PCR, RT-PCR and q-PCR techniques. Four trials were conducted in various water stress regimes under varying vapour pressure deficits (VPDs), and drought tolerance was studied using various component traits of drought. A substantial yield improvement of up to 24 % in drought trials under field conditions was achieved across a wide range of stress intensities and was related to higher harvest indices (HIs). All transgenic events had significantly higher seed filling under drought and displayed 20–30 % lower pod yield reduction than their untransformed counterpart under drought stress. Two transgenic events showed yield advantage under drought stress that consistently had higher pod and seed yield than the untransformed parent under drought stress across all trials, without displaying any yield penalty under irrigated conditions.

Increased global interest in biofuel feedstocks made sweet sorghum as one of the prominent energy crop suitable for both first and second generation biofuel production. An attempt has been made to critically identify the factors contributing to biomass yield and their interrelationship in sweet sorghum plant (main) and ratoon trials. The genotypes ICSSH 28, ICSSH 58, ICSA 749 × SPV 1411, B-24 and ICSV 93046 exhibited higher ratooning efficiency. It was observed that higher the ratooning efficiency lower will be the difference between the growing degree days (GDD) of main and ratoon crop. GDD can be used as one of the selection criteria in breeding programs aiming for enhanced biomass and ratooning efficiency.

Fusarium wilt (FW) and Ascochyta blight (AB) are two important diseases of chickpea which cause 100 % yield losses under favorable conditions. With an objective to validate and/or to identify novel quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for resistance to race 1 of FW caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris and AB caused by Ascochyta rabiei in chickpea, two new mapping populations (F2:3) namely ‘C 214’ (FW susceptible) × ‘WR 315’ (FW resistant) and ‘C 214’ (AB susceptible) × ‘ILC 3279’ (AB resistant) were developed. After screening 371 SSR markers on parental lines and genotyping the mapping populations with polymorphic markers, two new genetic maps comprising 57 (C 214 × WR 315) and 58 (C 214 × ILC 3279) loci were developed. Analysis of genotyping data together with phenotyping data collected on mapping population for resistance to FW in field conditions identified two novel QTLs which explained 10.4–18.8 % of phenotypic variation. Similarly, analysis of phenotyping data for resistance to seedling resistance and adult plant resistance for AB under controlled and field conditions together with genotyping data identified a total of 6 QTLs explaining up to 31.9 % of phenotypic variation. One major QTL, explaining 31.9 % phenotypic variation for AB resistance was identified in both field and controlled conditions and was also reported from different resistant lines in many earlier studies. This major QTL for AB resistance and two novel QTLs identified for FW resistance are the most promising QTLs for molecular breeding separately or pyramiding for resistance to FW and AB for chickpea improvement.

A crop forecast is a statement of the most likely magnitude of yield or production of a crop. It is made on the basis of known facts on a given date and it assumes that the weather conditions and damages during the remainder of the growing season will be about the same as the average of previous year. The present paper deals with use of non-linear regression analysis for developing wheat yield forecast model for Allahabad district (India). A novel statistical approach attempted in this study to use nonlinear models with different weather variables and their indices and compare them to identify a suitable forecasting model. Time series yield data of 40 years (1970-2010) and weather data for the year 1970-71 to 2009-10 have been utilized. The models have been used to forecast yield in the subsequent three years 2008-09 to 2009-10 (which were not included in model development). The approach provided reliable yield forecast about two months before harvest.

A study was carried out to forecast the yield of the wheat crop for five districts of Uttar Pradesh namely Lucknow, Kanpur, Banda, Jhansi and Faizabad. The daily weather data on variables such as maximum temperature, rainfall, minimum temperature, and relative humidity were arranged week wise from sowing to harvesting and the relations between the weather variables and yield was worked out using statistical tools like correlation and regression. The yield has been detrended by obtaining the parameter estimates of the model and subsequently the detrended yield was used to forecast the yield of the crop using ARIMA model. The proposed method of obtaining pre-harvest forecasting of yield of crops was compared with the traditional approaches of forecasting and the proposed method was evaluated in terms of criteria's such as goodness of fit of the model. It was observed that in all the districts the proposed model performed better as compared to the traditional method both in terms of goodness of fit as well as forecasting performance. Thus it can be concluded that the proposed approach is better and more suitable as compared to the traditional approach for forecasting the wheat yield in the five districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Late leaf spot (LLS), caused by Phaeoisariopsis personata, is an important foliar fungal disease of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), which causes significant economic losses globally to the crop. Inheritance of resistance to LLS disease was studied in three crosses and their reciprocals involving two resistant interspecific derivatives and a susceptible cultivar to refine strategy for LLS resistance breeding. The traits associated with LLS resistance, measured both in the field and under controlled conditions were studied following generation mean analysis. Results suggested that resistance to LLS is controlled by a combination of both, nuclear and maternal gene effects. Among nuclear gene effects, additive effect controlled majority of the variation. In JL 24 × ICG 11337 cross and its reciprocal only additive effects were important, while in JL 24 × ICG 13919 cross and its reciprocal, both additive and dominance effects contributed to the variation. Among digenic epistatic effects, additive × dominance interactions were significant. Additive–maternal effects were significant in both the crosses, while dominance–maternal effects also contributed to the variation in the crosses between the parents, JL 24 and ICG 13919. Due to significant contribution of additive effects of both nuclear and maternal inheritance to resistance to LLS, the parent, ICG 11337 would be a good donor in breeding programs. It would be worthwhile to use the resistance donor as female parent to tap maternal effects of resistance to LLS. Disease score is the best selection criterion in the field for use in breeding programs because of its high heritability and ease in measurement.

Botrytis grey mould (BGM), caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea Pers. ex Fr., is an important disease of chickpea causing economic losses across the world in chickpea-growing regions. There are no available resistance sources in cultivated chickpea against this disease. Cicer echinospermum and C. reticulatum, the only two compatible annual wild species, have been reported to have resistance to BGM. Hence, interspecific populations were developed with susceptible cultivars as female parents and C. echinospermum accession IG 73 074 and C. reticulatum accession IG 72 937 as the pollen donors to transfer and assess the nature of genetic control for BGM. Screening the progeny indicated that resistance to BGM was controlled by a single additive gene/allele (bgmr1cr and bgmr1ce), which can be introgressed through a backcross breeding programme.

SUMMARYPigeonpea is an important legume crop of the semi-arid tropics. In India, pigeonpea is mostly grown in areas prone to waterlogging, resulting in major production losses. It is imperative to identify genotypes that show tolerance at critical crop growth stages to prevent these losses. A selection of 272 diverse pigeonpea accessions was evaluated for seed submergence tolerance for different durations (0, 120, 144, 168 and 192 h) under in vitro conditions in the laboratory. All genotypes exhibited high (0·79–0·98) survival rates for up to 120 h of submergence. After 192 h of submergence, the hybrids as a group exhibited significantly higher survival rates (0·79) than the germplasm (0·71), elite breeding lines (0·68) and commercial varieties (0·58). Ninety-six genotypes representing the phenotypic variation observed during laboratory screening were further evaluated for waterlogging tolerance at the early seedling stage using pots, and survival rates were recorded for 8 days after completion of the stress treatment. Forty-nine of these 96 genotypes, representing the phenotypic variation for waterlogging tolerance, were chosen in order to evaluate their performance under natural field conditions. The following cultivated varieties and hybrids were identified as tolerant after three levels of testing (in vitro, in pots and in the field): ICPH 2431, ICPH 2740, ICPH 2671, ICPH 4187, MAL 9, LRG 30, Maruti, ICPL 20128, ICPL 332, ICPL 20237, ICPL 20238, Asha and MAL 15. These materials can be used as sources of waterlogging tolerance in breeding programmes.

Chickpea wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris is one of the most important constraints to chickpea production worldwide and best managed through host plant resistance. The aim of this work was to find new sources of resistance to wilt disease and validate their stability across different environments. One-hundred and twenty three lines with wilt incidence

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) is an important food legume crop of rainfed agriculture. Owing to exposure of the crop to a number of biotic and abiotic stresses, the crop productivity has remained stagnant for almost last five decades at ca. 750 kg/ha. The availability of a cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) system has facilitated the development and release of hybrids which are expected to enhance the productivity of pigeonpea. Recent advances in genomics and molecular breeding such as marker-assisted selection (MAS) offer the possibility to accelerate hybrid breeding. Molecular markers and genetic maps are pre-requisites for deploying MAS in breeding. However, in the case of pigeonpea, only one inter- and two intra-specific genetic maps are available so far. Here, four new intra-specific genetic maps comprising 59–140 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci with map lengths ranging from 586.9 to 881.6 cM have been constructed. Using these four genetic maps together with two recently published intra-specific genetic maps, a consensus map was constructed, comprising of 339 SSR loci spanning a distance of 1,059 cM. Furthermore, quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis for fertility restoration (Rf) conducted in three mapping populations identified four major QTLs explaining phenotypic variances up to 24 %. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on construction of a consensus genetic map in pigeonpea and on the identification of QTLs for fertility restoration. The developed consensus genetic map should serve as a reference for developing new genetic maps as well as correlating with the physical map in pigeonpea to be developed in near future. The availability of more informative markers in the bins harbouring QTLs for sterility mosaic disease (SMD) and Rf will facilitate the selection of the most suitable markers for genetic analysis and molecular breeding applications in pigeonpea. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00122-012-1916-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a very important crop in the arid and semi-arid tropics of India and African subcontinent. In the process of release of new cultivars using multi-location data major emphasis is being given on the superiority of the new cultivars over the ruling cultivars, while very less importance is being given on the genotype × environment interaction (GEI). In the present study, performance of ten Indian hybrids over 12 locations across the rainy seasons of 2008 and 2009 was investigated using GGE biplot analysis. Location attributed higher proportion of the variation in the data (59.3–89.9%), while genotype contributed only 3.9–16.8% of total variation. Genotype × location interaction contributed 5.8–25.7% of total variation. We could identify superior hybrids for grain yield, fodder yield and for harvest index using biplot graphical approach effectively. Majority of the testing locations were highly correlated. ‘Which-won-where’ study partitioned the testing locations into three mega-environments: first with eight locations with SPH 1606/1609 as the winning genotypes; second mega-environment encompassed three locations with SPH 1596 as the winning genotype, and last mega-environment represented by only one location with SPH 1603 as the winning genotype. This clearly indicates that though the testing is being conducted in many locations, similar conclusions can be drawn from one or two representatives of each mega-environment. We did not observe any correlation of these mega-environments to their geographical locations. Existence of extensive crossover GEI clearly suggests that efforts are necessary to identify location-specific genotypes over multi-year and -location data for release of hybrids and varieties rather focusing on overall performance of the entries.

Fusarium wilt (FW) and Sterility mosaic disease (SMD) are important biotic constraints to pigeonpea production worldwide. Host plant resistance is the most durable and economical way to manage these diseases. A pigeonpea mini-core collection consisting of 146 germplasm accessions developed from a core collection of 1290 accessions from 53 countries was evaluated to identify sources of resistance to FW and SMD under artificial field epiphytotic conditions during 2007–08 and 2008–09 crop seasons. Resistant sources identified in the field were confirmed in the greenhouse using a root dip screening technique for FW and a leaf stapling technique for SMD. Six accessions (originated from India and Italy were found resistant to FW (

Chickpea is the third most important pulse crop worldwide. Changes in cropping system that necessitate late planting, scope for expansion in rice fallows and the global warming are pushing chickpeas to relatively warmer growing environment. Such changes demand identification of varieties resilient to warmer temperature. Therefore, the reference collection of chickpea germplasm, defined based on molecular characterization of global composite collection, was screened for high temperature tolerance at two locations in India (Patancheru and Kanpur) by delayed sowing and synchronizing the reproductive phase of the crop with the occurrence of higher temperatures ( ≥ 35°C). A heat tolerance index (HTI) was calculated using a multiple regression approach where grain yield under heat stress is considered as a function of yield potential and time to 50% flowering. There were large and significant variations for HTI, phenology, yield and yield components at both the locations. There were highly significant genotypic effects and equally significant G × E interactions for all the traits studied. A cluster analysis of the HTI of the two locations yielded five cluster groups as stable tolerant (n = 18), tolerant only at Patancheru (n = 34), tolerant only at Kanpur (n = 23), moderately tolerant (n = 120) and stable sensitive (n = 82). The pod number per plant and the harvest index explained ≥ 60% of the variation in seed yield and ≥ 49% of HTI at Kanpur and ≥ 80% of the seed yield and ≥ 35% of HTI at Patancheru, indicating that partitioning as a consequence of poor pod set is the most affected trait under heat stress. A large number of heat-tolerant genotypes also happened to be drought tolerant.