Rising fodder shortage prompts release of two pearl millet varieties with superior and higher forage in south India
Forage variety pearl millet on the research field (left) and farmer’s field (right). Photo: ICRISAT
Two pearl millet varieties with 7.0% and 5.4% higher green forage yields as compared to national check Giant Bajra, were released for cultivation in five south India states. These have significantly higher dry fodder yield and superior/or at par forage quality compared to checks. The release is significant given that India has a shortage of 284 million tons of green fodder and 122 million tons of dry fodder. This demand is likely to grow further and India would require 400 and 117 million tons of green and dry fodder, respectively, by 2025*.
Farmers in the states of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry can now cultivate these high-forage pearl millet cultivars to ensure feed security of their livestock. These varieties are also resistant to leaf spot and blight diseases.
Driven by feedback from partners that lack of sufficient fodder is the major constraint to livestock production in smaller farming communities in the arid and semi-arid regions of India, the ICRISAT pearl millet team worked on the development of promising multi-cut forage varieties in association with Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad. This resulted in the release and notification in 2020 of two forage pearl millet varieties – TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8. The two varieties can be cultivated as rainfed crops in the rainy season and as irrigated dry crops during summer.
The varieties were developed through recurrent selection breeding methodology in association with Dr T Shashikala, Forage Breeder from PJTSAU.
Dr SK Gupta, Pearl Millet Breeder at ICRISAT, informed that based on three-year (2016-2018) multilocation evaluations in the south zone, TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8 were released for their superior performance over national and zonal checks.
*Demand and Supply Projections Towards 2033, NITI Aayog 2018
| Performance of TSFB 15-4 and TSFB 15-8 compared to national and zonal checks | ||||
| Characteristic |
TSFB 15-4 |
TSFB 15-8 |
National check |
Zonal |
| Green forage yield (tons/ha) | 42.67 | 42.02 | 39.87 | 39.80 |
| Dry fodder yield (tons/ha) | 8.47 | 8.60 | 7.76 | 8.02 |
| Crude protein (%) | 9.8 | 10.1 | 9.7 | 9.0 |
| In vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) (%) | 56.5 | 57.7 | 56.8 | NA |
Read more about pearl millet and feed and fodder on EXPLOREit
Funder: Pearl Millet Hybrid Parents Research Consortium (PMHPRC) and ICAR, Government of India
Partners: Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi; PJTSAU, Hyderabad and ICRISAT
CRP: Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC)
Read more about pearl millet and feed and fodder on EXPLOREit
