Farmer participatory varietal selection in pearl millet: Experience in vertisol tract of Southern districts of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Farmers’ participation in on-farm research can speed up of large scale adoption of the new crop varieties among farmers and replace the traditional agricultural practices. A small farmer in a variable environment will be affected by adoption of traditional practices especially for choice of crops and selection of suitable varieties. In areas where farmers are unfamiliar with available improved varieties, there is need of conducting effective varietal evaluation with farmers. The participatory approach for identifying suitable high yielding cultivars for harsh environments would be boon to the dry land farmers and could retain the sustainability in rainfed zones. This paper describes how plant breeder and farmers worked together to evaluate and identified the farmers’ choice pearl millet varieties; TNAU hybrid CO9 and Pioneer 86M86 from a diverse genetic background in a participatory varietal selection programme conducted in vertisol tract of southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

Keywords

• pearl millet
• participatory varietal selection
• ranking