Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Post-rainy (rabi) sorghum grows under residual soil
moisture conditions and is important for food and fodder
security especially during dry seasons in semi-arid regions
of India. Unlike rainy sorghum being dominated with
hybrids, post-rainy sorghum growing areas are cultivated
with varieties especially landrace selections. Much of the
area is covered by M 35-1, a landrace selection developed
seven and half decades ago. Post-rainy sorghum research
did not receive much emphasis until nineties and the
varieties or hybrids bred and released could not match M
35-1 in yield or quality. Some progress has been made
recently with the release of varieties for specific soil depths
viz., shallow, medium and deep soils. Efforts made to
develop hybrids with wider adaptability to varied production
environments did not fetch much success. The hybrids
lacked significant heterosis, grain quality and shoot fly
resistance comparable to M 35-1. Also, low temperatures at
anthesis caused poor seed settings in hybrids. Strategic
research is required to develop new varieties and hybrids
for post-rainy season to break the yield plateau.
Keywords: Sorghum, post-rainy, varieties, hybrids, M 35-1, yield plateau
Year: 2014
Volume: 74
Issue: 3
Article DOI: 10.5958/0975-6906.2014.00845.1
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
J. V. Patil, P. Sanjana Reddy, Prabhakar, A. V. Umakanth, Sunil Gomashe and K. N. Ganapathy info_circle
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