Abstract

A high yielding Prosomillet culture, TNAU 151, was developed at the Department of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and tested at national level for three years from 2005 to 2008. It is a non-lodging, fertilizer responsive and early maturing culture selected from the segregants of the cross involving TNAU 96 X PV 1673. Its average yield is 1860 kg of grain and 4130 kg of straw per hectare under normal condition. It is a medium tall, profusely tillering, non shattering and non-lodging variety and is highly suitable for dry lands of India. The panicle is large and branched. The grains are bold and golden yellow in colour. Being a short duration culture (72 days), it is the best suited crop for contingency planting. Under All India Coordinated Trials, this culture has registered an average yield of 1860 kg/ha which was 10.36 and 14.44 percent increase over TNAU 149 and DHPM 50-1-1 (qualifying checks) and 35.35 and 35.45 percent increase over national checks GPUP 21 and K 1 respectively. Based on the consistent superiority in yield performance, the prosomillet advanced culture TNAU 151 was released as a national variety in the year 2008.

Keywords: Prosomillet, TNAU 151, grain yield, national variety.