A High Yielding Dual Purpose Sorghum Variety K 13 Suitable for Rainfed Vertisol Tracts of Southern Districts of Tamil Nadu.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) is an important cereal crop grown in arid and semi arid areas. It is substantially popular among the farmers due to its greater adaptability and various forms of utility as grain, green fodder, stover and silage. It is an important staple food grain after rice, wheat for millions of poor people and most important food for insecure people in the semi arid tropics of India. Sorghum also offers great potential to supplement for fodder requirement of the growing dairy industry in India.

In Tamil Nadu is grown an area of 4.05 lakh hectares with an annual production of 4.27 lakh tonnes with a productivity of 1054 kg/ha of grain (Season and crop report 2020-25). Sorghum is cultivated as a rainfed crop by the marginal farmers exceeding 85 per cent of the area to meet out the requirement of grain for consumption and dry fodder as animal feed.  Healthy eating can transform life to live active and longer which demand sorghum grain as health food in urban areas. Besides sorghum is the major dry fodder to fulfil the requirement of dry land farmers. Sorghum is also prone to some of the pests like shoot and stem borer and Diseases like grain mould and downy mildew. this necessitates the development of an early duration sorghum variety with high commercial value for the present day rainfed sorghum scenario.

Crop breeding is the continuous endeavour to develop better crop varieties with wider adaptation, increased productivity and enhanced resistance to benefit the farming community. The latest rainfed sorghum variety released was K 12 during the year 2015. With the objective of developing more productive varieties than K 12, the sorghum culture TKSV 1036 has developed by crossing ICSB 518 × SPV 1489 and tested for its superiority in various yield trails.

The sorghum culture TKSV 1036 is a hybrid derivative of the cross (ICSB 518 X SPV 1489) developed at Agricultural Research Station, TNAU, Kovilpatti. This culture was evolved with an objective to develop high yielding dual purpose sorghum variety with enhanced tolerance to shoot fly and stem borer and improved fodder quality. It has been tested for its adaptability under Station trial during 2012-2015, Multi Location Trial during the year 2015-2017 and Adaptive Research Trial in a farmers field in all the sorghum growing areas during the year 2017-2019. It was also tested in All India Co-ordinated Research Projects on Sorghum during the year 2014-15 in the name of SPV 2304 in nine locations across the nation. The culture was subjected to natural as well as artificial screening for various pests and diseases. The nutritional quality of the grain and fodder was evaluated to assess the suitability of grain for consumption and fodder for Invitro Digestibility.

The pooled performance of the variety K 13 (TKSV 1036) over the year and season tested in various yield trials are the criterion for assessing the performance of the variety to release as a new variety. The culture TKSV 1036 was tested at Agricultural Research Station, Kovilpatti in various yield trials from 2012 to 2021 under rainfed condition, revealed that TKSV 1036 had a consistent performance with mean grain yield of 2575 kg/ha against 2326 kg/ha and 2488 kg/ha by the checks K 12 and C o 30 respectively. The grain yield was 10.7 and 3.5 per cent increased over the check variety K 12 and Co 30 respectively. Mean dry fodder yield of TKSV 1036 was 11.40 t/ha as against 9.0 and 9.8 t/ha which was 26.6.5 and 16.3 per cent increased fodder yield over the checks K 12 and C o 30 respectively (Table 1 and 2).

Table: 1. Overall performance of TKSV 1036 in different yield trials Grain Yield(kg/ha)

Table :2 Overall performance of TKSV 1036 over different yield trials Dry fodder Yield(t/ha)

The Sorghum culture TKSV 1036 recorded an average grain yield of 2575 kg/ha, which is 10.7 % increased yield over the check K 12 over 118 locations conducted in different yield trails viz., station trails, MLT, ART (2012-2018) and OFT on Kharif and rabi 2020-21. The average dry fodder yield of 11.4 t/ha was recorded which is 26.6 per cent increase over the check K 12 (9.0 t/ha).

   Field view of sorghum variety K 13                Panicle of sorghum K 13

Table 3: Performance of Sorghum Culture TKSV 1036 in Station Trials

        The sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was tested during 2013 and 2014 under rainfed condition. It recorded the highest mean grain yield of 3647 kg/ha over three years, registering 26.6% increased yield over the check K8 (2879 kg/ha) for dry fodder yield was recorded of 8.36 t/ha which is 23.6% increased yield over the check K 8 (6.76 t/ha) (Table 3).

Multilocation trial was conducted under both irrigated and rainfed condition in TNAU Research stations. Under rainfed condition, trial was conducted during rabi season from 2015 to 2016 and the high yielding sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was recorded a mean grain yield of 2164 kg/ha over two years (2015-16 and 2016-17), registered 17.8% and 8.7% increased yield over the checks K 12 and Co 30 (Table 4).

Table 4: Performance of Sorghum Culture TKSV 1036 in Multi Location Trial

            The sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was tested in AICRP trials during 2014 as SPV 2304 in nine locations. The culture TKSV1036 recorded mean grain yield of 2334 kg/ha and fodder yield of 17189 kg/ha and excelled CSV 17 and Co 30   by recording 103.5 and 22.1 percent increase of  fodder yield respectively (Table 5).

Table 5:  Performance of Sorghum culture TKSV 1036 (SPV 2304) in All India Co-ordinated research Trials (2014 - 2015)

          The sorghum culture was evaluated in ART both under rainfed and irrigated condition extensively. It was tested in 82 trials in 15 districts. The average grain yield of 2031 kg/ha with an increased yield of 12.27 per cent over the check variety K 12 (1809 kg/ha) in two years of ART (82 locations) (Table 6). The fodder yield also recorded as 9547 kg/ha with yield gain of 2.1 percent over the ruling variety Co 30 (Table 7).

Table 6: Overall Performance of grain yield in ART trials conducted by Department of    Agriculture ( 2017 -2018 and 2018- 2019)

Table 7. Performance of fodder yield in ART trials conducted by Department of Agriculture (2017 -2018 and 2018- 2019)

          The major pests are shoot fly and stemborer in sorghum. Sorghum shoot fly, Atherigona soccata Rondani and Stemborer Chilo partellus is the major insect pests that severely damage to sorghum crop (Thakur, 2019). Shoot fly is the most destructive one cause severe damage in the early seedling stage at 7-30 days after seedling emergence. On the other pest stemborer is also playing an important role in the reduction of sorghum production. The infestation of Chilo partellus ia about 4-45 per cent in sorghum and maximum infestation occurred during August, which is declined gradually on September and October (Singh, 1985). It was screened for both natural as well as artificial condition along with checks. 

Table. 8.Reaction to major pests under field conditions

         The Sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was screened for their reaction to major pests of sorghum in kharif season along with two check varieties under field condition. The culture TKSV1036 showed resistance to shoot fly and stemborer (Table 8).

Table 8.1 Reaction to major pests under Artificial conditions

The sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was also screened during for two seasons under artificial condition. The mean per cent shoot fly investigation revealed that, TKSV 1036 Registered 22.1 per cent infestation standard check K12 registered 34.4 per cent infestation (MR). The resistant and susceptible checks viz., IS 18551 and DJ 6514 registered 7.4 (R) and 33.3 (MR) per cent infestation respectively. With regard to stem borer infestation, the per cent dead heart was 25.2 in TKSV 1036 (MR) and K12 registered 28.4 per cent infestation (MR). IS 18551 (Resistant check) and DJ6514 (Susceptible check) recorded 13.2 (R) and 33.5 per cent (S) stem borer infestation respectively (Table 8.1).

            Among the disease, grain mould is the most important biotic constraints to the production of grain sorghum worldwide (Thakur et al., 2006) and Williams et al., 1981). Sorghum downy mildew is economically important and widespread in many tropical and sub tropical regions of the world, where sorghum and maize grown (Jegera et al., 1998 and Williams, 1984).The Sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was screened for their reaction to major diseases of sorghum in kharif season along with two check varieties under field condition. The cultureTKSV1036 showed highly resistant to ergot (0.0% incidence), resistance to downy mildew (4.60 % incidence), grain mould (9.90% incidence) and rust, and for Leaf blight, anthracnose it shows moderately resistance (Table 9, 9.1).

Table 9: Screening of disease under field condition

Table 9.1. Screening for diseases under artificial condition during kharif 2020-21

Under artificial screening, the entry TKSV1036 showed resistance to grain mould (4.70 % severity grade) and ergot (6.5 % severity grade) and moderately resistant to downy mildew. In rabi season the entry TKSV 1036 showed moderately resistant to downy mildew (18.50 % Panicle infected), grain mould (10.20 % severity grade) and ergot (13.50 % Panicle infected) and resistant to other foliar diseases (rust, anthracnose, leaf blight). Drought is a significant stress affecting sorghum cultivation in semi-arid regions. It is an epidemic stress common in semi-arid regions due to insufficient, un evenly distributed and unpredictable rainfall (Rajarajan et al., 2021). Climate change prediction showed that there would be abrupt changes in rainfall patterns in the next four decades combined with the risk of high temperature, which will intensify drought stress (Prasad et al., 2021). Physiological and morphological traits contribute to drought tolerance in sorghum. The Sorghum culture TKSV 1036 was screened for drought tolerance along with check K 12. The cultureTKSV1036 was Recorded moderately tolerant to drought compare to check K 12 (Table 10).

Table 10.  Performance of sorghum culture TKSV 1036 for drought tolerance

Sorghum is a dual-purpose crop that satisfies both the need of grain for consumption and dry fodder for animals in dryland ecosystem. The grain quality of TKSV 1036 was better than K 12 for protein content (10.9 g), fat content (3.36 g), crude fibre (3.20 g) and amylose content (10.41 g). Sorghum is traditionally consumed by lower segment of society. Now it is moving up the ladder and is being consumed by economically well of sections also. The higher grain quality of this variety will make it desirable for the high end market which will benefit the marginal producing farmer by fetching a higher price. Protein content and digestibility of fodder are two important compounds for quality in fodder sorghum. The sorghum culture was found to better with high IVDMD of 34-46 per cent (Table 11).

Table 11. Grain Quality Tests of sorghum culture TKSV 1036

      In any breeding programme, the primary objective of the breeder is the identification of superior genotypes in terms of yield of the crop. Since sorghum is a dual purpose crop for food and feed, the grain yield and fodder yield were considered in assessing its performance. The culture TKSV 1036 recorded superior grain and fodder yield and excelled the check variety K12 and CO 32. Besides it also possessed many desirable traits viz., high protein content in the gain with better cooking quality. The quality of the dry fodder was also found to be better in terms of digestibility. Biotic stress such as pest and disease resistance, the culture TKSV 1036 is moderate. Hence, the culture TKSV 1036 was proposed as a new sorghum variety during the year 2023 and released as K 13 for the benefit of Southern district of farming community.

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Thakur, R. P., Reddy, B. V. S., Indira, S., Rao, V. P., Navi, S.S., Yang, X. B. and Ramesh, S. 2006. Sorghum grain mould. In: Inf. Bull. No. 72. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru 502324, Andhra Pradesh, India. http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/4942

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