Barnyard millet: Recent advances and improved technologies

Abstract

Barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumentacea), due to its remarkable ability to withstand erratic rainfall and varying weather conditions has been classified as one of the drought stress hardy crop. It is largely cultivated in harsh and fragile environments, with minimal use of agricultural inputs. Barnyard millet with rich nutritional profile is one of the best choices for patients with dietary based health defects like diabetic, heart related diseases and celiac diseases. Presently, crop improvement programmes in barnyard millet are targeting recombination breeding, use of molecular markers, tagging genes/QTLs for nutritional qualities, biotic and abiotic stresses, improving/modifying the crossing techniques, mutation breeding to enhance the diversity etc. However, the whole genome sequencing in Indian barnyard millet is necessary to understand its adaptability and dissecting the phenotypic characters at genotypic level and utilizing the information in improving the yield contributing traits to break the stagnated yield levels.