Pearl millet germplasm at ICRISAT genebank - status and impact

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is an important foodand forage crop in Africa and Asia, and forage inAmericas. It is probably the world?s hardiest crop and hasgreat potential because of its suitability to the extremelimits of agriculture. It is mainly cultivated in Niger,Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana, Mali, Senegal,Central African Republic, Cameroon, Sudan, Botswana,Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa in Africa;and India, Pakistan and Yemen in Asia. The success incrop improvement programs depends largely on the extentof genetic variability available to the researchers. Pearlmillet is endowed with enormous genetic variability forvarious morphological traits, yield components, adaptationand quality traits. In ensuring that the plant breeders willhave genetic resources for use in plant breeding programs,collection, conservation, characterization, evaluation,documentation and distribution of plant genetic resourcesis very important. Large efforts were made to collect andconserve the pearl millet diversity before it is lost forever.In this article, we have summarized the current status ofpearl millet germplasm assembled in the genebank at theInternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-AridTropics (ICRISAT) and discussed its impact

H D Upadhyaya, K N Reddy, C L L Gowda, 'Pearl millet germplasm at ICRISAT genebank - status and impact', Journal of SAT Agricultural Research, vol. 3, pp.5pp, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, 2011