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Diversity in proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) landraces collected from Himalayan mountains of Nepal

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Abstract

Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is one of the oldest cereal grains cultivated in the north-western part of Nepal. Not a single proso millet variety has been released so far for cultivation in Nepal. To assess the genetic diversity of proso millet conserved in the National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre, 42 accessions of proso millet were characterized in Khumaltar (1360 m a.s.l.), Lalitpur in 2015 that were collected from the Humla (1900–2800 m a.s.l.) and Jumla (2300–2600 m a.s.l.) districts of the Western Himalayas of Nepal. Seven quantitative and nine qualitative traits were recorded using standard descriptors. The accessions were found to be diverse using Shannon–Weaver diversity indices (H′) for the quantitative traits of days to heading and maturity, plant height, panicle length, panicle exertion, flag leaf length and grain yield, whereas low diversity was observed for the qualitative traits of leaf sheath colour, flag leaf angle, grain shape, and grain colour, and no diversity was observed for leaf pubescence. The accessions were grouped in five clusters where an accession in Cluster-5 and six accessions in Cluster-4, all from Humla, were found to be high-yielding, early-maturing and of taller plant height. In contrast, 4 accessions in Cluster-2 (3 from Jumla) were low-yielding, late-maturing and of shorter plant height. Accessions H237, H176, H311, H489, H490, H643 and H653, all from the Humla district, performed better in the preliminary evaluation. Although these accessions could be used for future breeding to develop climate-resilient varieties, the genebank could employ an innovative method of using participatory diversity kits to promote farmer selection for immediate benefits.

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Notes

  1. The Integrating Traditional Crop Genetic Diversity for Mountain Food Security project focuses on the important, nutritious, and climate-resilient crops in the high mountain agricultural ecosystems in Nepal from the perspective of breeding, processing, promotion, and policies. (www.himalayancrops.org).

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Acknowledgements

This paper is the output of the GEF/UNEP supported project, “Integrating Traditional Crop Genetic Diversity into Technology: Using a Biodiversity Portfolio Approach to Buffer against Unpredictable Environmental Change in the Nepal Himalayas” implemented in Nepal. The project is coordinated by Bioversity International in collaboration with Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Department of Agriculture (DoA) and Local Initiatives for Biodiversity Research and Development (LI-BIRD). The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. MN Paudel, Mr. MR Bhatta and Mr. M Bhattarai (NAGRC), Mr. Sajal Sthapit (WSU, USA), Dr Devra Jarvis, and Dr. D Gauchan (Bioversity International) for technical support and encouragement. Thanks to Julia Herrle (Bioversity–Nepal office) for language editing (Grant #A1150).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Agriculture Genetic Resources Centre, NARC, Khumaltar, Nepal

    K. H. Ghimire & B. K. Joshi

  2. Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development, Pokhara, Nepal

    R. Dhakal

  3. Bioversity International, Nepal office, Pokhara, Nepal

    B. R. Sthapit

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  1. K. H. Ghimire
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  2. B. K. Joshi
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  3. R. Dhakal
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  4. B. R. Sthapit
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Correspondence to B. R. Sthapit.

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Ghimire, K.H., Joshi, B.K., Dhakal, R. et al. Diversity in proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) landraces collected from Himalayan mountains of Nepal. Genet Resour Crop Evol 65, 503–512 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-017-0548-7

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