Characterization of Finger Millet Genotypes for Terminal Moisture Stress Tolerance Using Reported Indices
V. T. Manjunatha
College of Agriculture Raichur, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, India.
L. N. Yogeesh *
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Shimoga, Karnataka, India.
T. M. Ningaraju
Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, GKVK, UAS, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present investigation is carried out to identify drought-tolerant genotypes among 108 finger millet accessions using drought-tolerant indices during Rabi, 2019. Drought tolerance indices like mean productivity (MP), drought susceptible index (DSI), drought tolerance efficiency (DTE) and stress tolerance index (STI) were employed in the screening of the genotypes. The variation in MP values ranged between 11.33-32.24, DSI between 0.03-1.53, DTE between 44.04%-98.90% and STI between 0.26-2.23. The genotypes with high MP, DTE, STI and low DSI were identified as drought-tolerant genotypes. The present study indicates that selection based on stress tolerance indices like MP, DSI, DTE and STI will result in the identification of drought-tolerant genotypes under terminal moisture stress that could reflect finger millet as a “Certain” crop for an “Uncertain” future and a solution to food insecurity and hidden hunger under environments prone to drought stress.
Keywords: Mean Productivity (MP), Drought Susceptible Index (DSI), Drought Tolerance Efficiency (DTE), Stress Tolerance Index (STI)