Breeding of new millet varieties for fodder production

Abstract

The review analyzes the millet production, and possibilities of the use of new varieties in fodder production are shown.

The aim and tasks of the study. Introduction of millet components in cattle and bird feed improves the quality of products, reduces costs per unit of weight gain, therefore, augmentation in  nutritional and fodder benefits of millet is relevant.

Lack of heat in the cold-temperate sub-belt limits the millet production. Due to the introduction of new higher-yielding, early-ripening, relatively cold-tolerant varieties of millet with a complex of economically valuable features and properties, it is possible to expand the crop cultivation in less favorable areas.

Materials and Methods. The basis of broomcorn millet and millet-like crop breeding is intraspecies hybridization with individual selection of breeding lines from hybrid populations in early generations and tests for yield capacity and other parameters. Hybridization uses original breeding material adapted to local soil and climatic conditions, and the best accessions from other regions, which allows obtaining new recombinant forms of millet.

Results and Discussion. Mid-early multi-line millet variety “Kvartet’  consisting of 4 biocompatible lines-analogs with effective dominant genes of race-specific resistance to smut Sp₁, Sp₂, Sp3, Sp₄ was first created in the All-Russia research Institute of Legumes and Groat Crops.

To widen the spectrum of millet use, models of thin-filmed (leptodermal) varieties were developed. Unrivalled leptodermal forms bred at the All-Russia research Institute of Legumes and Groat Crops (LD 2337, LD 2380 and others) with a very high oil content in grain of 5.3-5.8%, while it is 4.4-4.6% in the standard, in combination with a high grain protein content - by 3.1-3.3% higher than the standard - were identified. Leptodermal variety ‘Alba’ (subvariety afganicum) was created by continuous back-crossing of dominant allele Ld into recurrent variety ‘Blagodatnoye’ with multiple individual selection for productivity and grain quality, which has been listed in the National Register since 2012.

We developed a new breeding technology for millet that shortens breeding process and involves the use of mutant forms in hybridization, obtainment of dihaploid plants, identification of genotypes by electrophoresis of storage proteins and PCR of DNA, testing of selected genotypes for yield capacity, economically useful traits within 2-4 years in 2-3 locations. As a result, a new millet variety ‘Regent’ obtained by anther culture and selection for productivity and  grain quality from dihaploids of a hybrid population has been included in the State Register of the Russian Federation since 2014.

Conclusions. It was found that new varieties of broomcorn millet “Kvartet', ‘Alba’, and ‘Regent’ provided sufficiently high yields in the northern areal of this crop.