Population diallel of elite medium- and long-duration pearl millet composites: I. populations and their F1 crosses

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) varieties grown in semiarid Africa and Asia have low grain yields. Information on heterosis and combining ability of diverse open-pollinated cultivars, breeding populations, and genepools is needed for efficient choice of breeding methods and parental materials to use in developing productive base populations for this crop. Data for grain and biomass yield, growth rate, time to flowering, plant height, panicle length, and productive tillers were collected from an 11-parent variety cross diallel of diverse pearl millet populations evaluated in five field environments (rainy season of 1993 in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh and Bhavanisagar, Tamil Nadu; dry summer season of 1994 and rainy seasons of 1994 and 1995 in Patancheru) in peninsular India. Data were summarized using the Gardner-Eberhart Analysis II. When genotype x environment interactions were significant, ranks of parental general combining abilities (GCA) were used to identify particular environments and parents contributing most to these interactions. Parental population effects were significant for all characters, as were differences in GCA. Populations NWC C2, AfPop 88, and LHGP consistently had the poorest ranks for general combining ability for grain yield across test environments. Populations ICMV 91059, SenPop, ICMP 91751, and ICMP 92951 constitute a genetically diverse subset of the parents that consistently had the best ranks for grain yield GCA across test environments. With ICMV 155 (crosses of which performed poorly in only one of five test environments), this latter group is a good source of more broad-based breeding populations for dual-purpose pearl millet improvement targeting peninsular India