B. Ouendeba et al., FORAGE YIELD AND DIGESTIBILITY OF AFRICAN PEARL-MILLET LANDRACES IN DIALLEL WITH MISSING CROSS, Crop science, 36(6), 1996, pp. 1517-1520
Shortage of nutritious forage is limiting animal production in the sem
iarid regions of Africa, This study was conducted to evaluate the magn
itude of heterosis for forage production and dry matter digestibility
in African landraces of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br,].
Five landrace populations, 9 of 10 interpopulation crosses, and two h
ybrids were evaluated in a randomized complete-block design with five
replications for dry matter forage yield and in vitro dry matter diges
tibility (IVDMD) in 1989 and 1990 in Tifton, GA, Entries in only two r
eplications were evaluated for digestibility. The missing cross was es
timated, and both the traditional and Gardner-Eberhart analyses were p
erformed, Highly significant difference between crosses (9.94 t ha(-1)
) and parents (8.50 t ha(-1)), or average heterosis, as well as genera
l combining ability was observed in the combined analyses for dry weig
ht forage yield. No other partitions of entries for either trait were
significant. Year x entries was significant for forage yield but not f
or IVDMD. All midparent and high-parent heterosis values were positive
for forage yield but were nonsignificant. High-parent heterosis value
s ranged from 3.3 ('Iniari' x 'Mansori') to 22.9% (Iniari x 'P(3)Kolo'
) for dry matter forage yield. No heterosis was observed for IVDMD. He
terosis for forage yield did not affect IVDMD. These results suggest t
hat use of pearl millet hybrids can contribute to increased forage pro
duction in semiarid Africa.