ICRISAT Archival Report 2006 - The seedlings of success in the ...

Activity 3B2.2: Creation of diversified Dwarf Guinea Sorghum Populations
Milestones: Partners from 4 WCA countries trained in tools for participatory recurrent selection (2006)
A training course involving pearl millet breeders and sorghum breeders, their technicians, and partners from farmer
organizations as well as development agents from large-scale development projects from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger
and Nigeria was conducted from 9-18 September 2006 in Segou, Mali. In addition to the plant breeders the course
participants include plant breeding technicians, farmers chosen from farmer organizations active in seed and variety
identification activities, and development workers involved in activities related to variety testing and seed
production. The course covered three main topics: a) an introduction to recurrent selection methods and factors that
contribute to successful selection gains; b) Options for farmer participation in the different stages of a recurrent
selection program for variety development and c) Organizational and institutional issues to consider in setting up
and implementing participatory variety development programs. The last day of the workshop was used to plan
activities for future collaboration on sorghum and pearl millet breeding.
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One diversified dwarf Guinea – race Sorghum population with farmer preferred traits available for at least
two different agro-ecologies of WCA (2009)
One trait that attracts farmers’ attention and strong expressions of preference is the stover quality of guinea race
sorghums. Diversifying and improving these locally well adapted sorghums for stover quality may contribute
significantly towards improving the economic value of the sorghum crop in WCA. We thus characterized key
parameters for stover quality in novel dwarf- and landrace-sorghum varieties adapted to WCA and their relationship
with agronomic traits.
Assessment of stover quality parameters of stem samples from 70 novel dwarf-stature Guinea-race sorghum lines
and landrace check varieties was conducted to a) quantify the genetic variability for stover quality provided by our
new dwarf Guinea-race sorghums, and b) assess relationships between stover quality and major agronomic traits.
This first systematic assessment of stover quality of these materials will provide guidance on the opportunities and
directions for developing novel dual-purpose sorghum varieties for West Africa.
The stem samples and agronomic measurements were made at ICRISAT-Samanko in 2004, in a four replicate trial.
Key agronomic characteristics such as grain yield, maturity, stem length (distance from ground to base of peduncle),
stem diameter, and internode lengths were measured. Stem quality parameters were estimated for dried, ground
(1mm sieve) stem samples using NIRS at CIRAD, Montpellier. The parameters estimated were total minerals (MM),
crude protein (CP), crude fiber (CBW), Neutral detergent fiber (NDF), Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF), Acid Detergent
Lignin (ADL), In-vitro digestibility of dry-matter (IVD-DM) and In-vitro digestibility of organic matter (IVD-OM).
Highly significant genetic variation was observed for all quality parameters.
Considerable similarity among sister lines, and considerable differences between families of progenies and high
entry-mean heritability estimates confirms the importance and repeatability of genetic differences for all quality
traits (Table 5).
Table 5. Variation and entry-mean heritability for key stem-quality and agronomic traits among 70 new
dwarf Guinea-race sorghum breeding lines and landrace checks
Standard
Trait Units Minimum Maximum Mean Error Heritability
In vitro Organic Matter Digestibility % 16 45 28 2.3 0.89
In vitro Dry Matter Digestibility % 17 48 32 2.3 0.89
Acid Detergent Fiber % 35 52 44 1.6 0.87
Neutral Detergent Fiber % 60 86 76 2.2 0.88
Crude Fiber % 33 50 42 1.5 0.89
Acid Detergent Lignin % 5.0 8.6 6.8 0.3 0.91
Crude Protein % 1.0 4.6 2.6 0.3 0.82
Total Minerals % 2.1 6.4 3.9 0.6 0.63
93