Population diallel of elite medium- and long-duration pearl millet composites: I. Populations and their F-1 crosses

Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] varieties grown in semiarid A frica and Asia have low grain yields. Information on heterosis and combinin g ability of diverse open-pollinated cultivars, breeding populations, and g enepools is needed for efficient choice of breeding methods and parental ma terials to use in developing productive base populations for this crop. Dat a for grain and biomass yield, growth rate, time to flowering, plant height , panicle length, and productive tillers were collected from an 11-parent v ariety cross diallel of diverse pearl millet populations evaluated in five field environments in peninsular India. Data were summarized using the Gard ner-Eberhart Analysis II. When genotype X environment interactions were sig nificant, ranks of parental general combining abilities (GCA) were used to identify particular environments and parents contributing most to these int eractions. Parental population effects were significant for all characters, as were differences in GCA. Populations NWC C2, AfPop 88, and LHGP consist ently had the poorest ranks for general combining ability for grain yield a cross test environments. Populations ICMV 91059, SenPop, ICMP 91751, and IC MP 92951 constitute a genetically diverse subset of the parents that consis tently had the best ranks for grain yield GCA across test environments. Wit h ICMV 155 (crosses of which performed poorly in only one of five test envi ronments), this latter group is a good source of more broad-based breeding populations for dual-purpose pearl millet improvement targeting peninsular India.