Breeding Approaches for Blast Resistance in Finger Millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn]

Abstract

Finger millet blast is caused by Pyricularia grisea. In India, blast disease was first reported during 1920 on a few finger millet cultivars and later reported sporadically on many varieties during 1980s. From 2000 onwards the disease is widespread in finger millet growing states of India and many varieties have shown susceptible reaction to the disease. The review Varieties of finger millet showing wide range of disease reaction to the blast disease from susceptible to moderate resistant reaction. Not much research data is available on finger millet blast. A comprehensive account of biology and management of blast disease of finger millet gives a new impetus for future research and also help mitigate the disease situation in India. Identifying hotspots for screening finger millet genotypes against blast disease and to start basic and applied research to tackle this problem is the need of the day.