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Yield improvement compensates the grain nutrient concentration in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.): analysis using varieties released over years

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Abstract

Finger millet is a staple food and fodder crop in India and Africa. Breeding efforts have achieved yield improvement without emphasis on the grain quality. The general notion, that increase in yield will decrease the grain nutrient content, is the question of the present study. The results revealed that carbohydrate, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, and zinc content differed statistically among the varieties. Over the years, the protein content did not differ, but the zinc content decreased significantly. The correlations between the most nutrients showed a non-significant negative relationship with other nutrients, indicating the compensation between the nutrients. The protein and zinc contents were negatively and significantly related to the grain yield. The path analysis also showed that the protein and zinc contents had a high direct negative effect on grain yield. The mean of all nutrient contents had a statistically significant negative relationship with grain yield. Overall, the trends showed compensation between the total nutrient content and the grain yield. However, nutrient content, in particular the iron and zinc needs to be emphasized as additional traits in the yield improvement of finger millet.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank profusely Dr. T.E. Nagaraja, Head, AICSMIP (Small Millets), GKVK who has kindly provided the seed material, Dr. M.S. Sheshshayee, Professor & Head Department of Crop Physiology, Dr. Prakash Koler, Assistant Professor of Crop Physiology and Dr. S. Shyamalamma, Prof. & Head, Department of Plant Biotechnology for suggestions in formulating the project as advisory committee members; and Mrs. Manasa, K.R. who supported in carrying out the experiment.

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  1. Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065, India

    K. C. Megha & Y. A. Nanja Reddy

  2. Department of Agronomy, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065, India

    D. C. Hanumanthappa

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The first author is Master’s student who conducted the experiment and wrote the draft manuscript. The second author formulated the project, supervised the conduct of experiment, and revised the manuscript for publication. The third author involved in providing facilities for estimation of nutrients, conduct of experiment, and MS corrections.

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Correspondence to Y. A. Nanja Reddy.

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Megha, K.C., Nanja Reddy, Y.A. & Hanumanthappa, D.C. Yield improvement compensates the grain nutrient concentration in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.): analysis using varieties released over years. Plant Physiol. Rep. 28, 199–208 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40502-023-00719-7

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