Abstract

                                Finger millet is commonly called “nutritious millet” as the grains are nutritiously superior to many cereals providing fair amount of protein, minerals, calcium and vitamins. The protein of finger millet is considered to be “biologically complete” as in the case of milk. For the utilization of saline lands, it is essential to manage the salinity or to grow crops and their varieties resistant to salinity. Reclamation of saline soils is a time taking and costly affair. Hence, it is urgently needed to identify crops and their genotypes which can resist salinity. Considering the importance of finger millet as food and its general capacity to withstand salinity, forty genotypes of finger millet were screened for salinity tolerance at seedling stage with 1⁄2 MS basal medium having four levels of salinity viz., 3000, 6000, 9000 and 12000 ppm along with control. Germination percentage and seedling parameters viz., fresh weight, shoot length, root length, seedling length and dry weight were recorded on 20th and 30th day after inoculation. Considering all the seedling characters together, the genotype AF 459 showed superiority for all the five characters studied. Germination of this genotype was also found to be least affected at 3000 and 6000 ppm salt concentration. Besides at 9000 ppm, it showed less than 15% reduction in germination compared to control. The seedlings of genotype AF 269 showed higher fresh and dry weight at 3000 ppm salt concentration compared to control, while the genotypes TNAU 1008 and GS 159 had a higher root length both at 3000 and 6000ppm salt concentrations. Besides the genotypes AF 269, TNAU 1008 and GS 159 also showed lesser population reduction at 3000 and 6000 ppm salt concentration.

Key words : Finger millet, genotypes, in-vitro screening, seedling parameters, salinity tolerance.