DIVERSITY IN PEARL-MILLET GERMPLASM FROM CENTRAL-AFRICAN-REPUBLIC

Most of the pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) growing area s in Central African Republic (CAR) were explored by the GRD, ICRISAT in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development, CAR, Bangui a nd 129 pearl millet samples were collected during December 1988-Januar y 1989. Considerable diversity was observed for several characters whe n 146 accessions including 17 collected by Institut francais de recher che scientifique pour le developpement en cooperation (ORSTOM) were ev aluated at ICRISAT Asia Center (IAC), Patancheru. Time to flower range d from 57 to 140 days with a mean of 128 +/- 1.1 days in rainy season and from 57 to 132 days with a mean of 73 +/- 0.8 days during postrain y season. Plant height ranged from 140 to 410 cm with a mean of 311 +/ - 6.1 cm in the rainy season and from 75 to 310 cm with a mean of 155 +/- 2.6 cm during the postrainy season. The number of tillers varied b etween 1 to 6 per plant, spikes were mostly cylindrical and medium siz ed with a mean length of 20 cm during both seasons. They produced most ly gray or cream colored, globular grain, with partly corneous endospe rm. Cluster analysis categorized accessions into similarity groups fac ilitating sampling a limited number of entries to represent the divers ity of the pearl millet germplasm from Central African Republic.