GRAIN QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN PEARLMILLET: A REVIEW
R. K. ARYA, SURESH KUMAR, ASHOK KUMAR YADAV1 AND AMIT KUMAR2
Ram Dhan Singh Seed Farm,
CCS HAU, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(E-mail: rajesharya@gmail.com)
(Received: 29 December, 2012, Accepted: 15 September 2013)
SUMMARY
Pearlmillet is a staple food and primary source of calories for millions of people in the arid and semi-arid tropical regions. It is rich source of carbohydrates, protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, carotene, riboflavin, niacin, tryptophan and lysine etc. It also has good potential as a feed and forage crop. Global warming may cause serious problem in agricultural production, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Being C4 plant, it could sustain under high temperature as compare to other cereals/millets, and have unique position in the world agriculture. The development of high grain quality cultivars and management to meet out the food/feed requirement for ever increasing human/livestock population is imperative, as the quality of the food/feed is very important. Therefore, the best option for increasing the availability of quality food/feed appears to be genetic improvement of yield and quality of grain in locally adapted as well as in new hybrid cultivars. An effort has been made to review the progress of pearl millet quality and grain production improvement done so far towards the development and production as well as its utilization. In this review the current status of various aspects of pearl millet grain quality discussed.
Key words: Grain quality, protein, starch, fat, vitamins, minerals, pearl millet