Abstract

A high yielding and early maturing samai culture TNAU 91 was developed at the Department of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and released as CO(Samai) 4. It is a derivative of the cross involving CO 2 x MS 1684. It yields on an average 1567 kg ha-1 of grain and 5783 kg ha-1 of straw under rainfed condition. Being a short duration variety (75-80 days), it fits well in the existing double cropped rainfed situation of North, North Western and Western zones of Tamil Nadu where samai is grown in June-July as a preceding crop to horsegram in about 80,000 ha. This culture has registered 14.2, 12.7 and 19.9 per cent increased grain yield over the standard varieties CO3, Paiyur 2 and OLM 203 (National check) in station trials, multilocation trials, All India coordinated trials, adaptive research trials and on farm trials respectively

Keywords: CO (Samai)4, Samai, high yielding, short duration