MPMH 17 –a new medium maturing dual-purpose pearl millet hybrid

Abstract

Drought-prone regions having crop-livestock farming systems always require a crop that fits well in the existing cropping system and meet the need of both human and livestock. Pearl millet is one such crop of arid and semi-arid regions of north-western India and forms the basis of food and livelihood security. The All India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project has recently developed a pearl millet hybrid, MPMH 17 which has a distinct superiority to other commercial hybrids. The hybrid provided, on an average, grain yield of 2835 kg/ha which was 10-40% higher than yields of four commercial checks viz., Pusa 23 (2028 kg/ha), ICMH 356 (2371 kg/ha), GHB 744 (2543 kg/ha) and RHB 121 (2576 kg/ha). In addition, MPMH 17 also provided higher stover yield (64q/ha) than Pusa 23 (52 q/ha), ICMH 356 (56 q/ha) and GHB 744 (63 q/ha), though its stover yield was slightly (1.5%) lesser than that of RHB 121 (65 q/ha). Another distinctive advantage of MPMH 17 is its high level of resistance to downy mildew (1.2%) and blast (9.3%), the two most important diseases of pearl millet. The hybrid MPMH 17 matures, on an average, in 79 days and takes 48 days to flower. It is high tillering (2.7 panicles/plant) and produces very compact panicles of 22-24 cm length filled with medium sized grains (seed weight of 8.0 g/ 1000 grain) of globular shape and grey-brown colour. The hybrid attains the height of approximately 180 cm and produces panicles that are, on an average, 2.6 cm thick.