Studies on physio-chemical attributes of barnyard millet [Echinochloa frumentacea (Roxb.) Link] under sodicity

Abstract

Barnyard millet (E. frumentacea) is a miracle crop due to its early mature, climate resilient capacity and nutrient potential. It is a hardy crop which can withstand a variety of abiotic stresses and one such limiting stress is sodicity. The crop also possesses immense potential in future as it holds an important stature in the quest for food and nutrition security. A study was conducted using ninety-seven barnyard millet germplasm along with two commercial checks viz., MDU 1 and CO (KV) 2. Among the genotypes evaluated, 25 were selected (best and poor yielder) for physio-chemical analysis. Attributes related to sodicity stress like proline content, chlorophyll index and Na+/K+ ratio and iron nutrient content were estimated. These analyses found high yielding barnyard millet genotypes viz., BAR-242, BAR-252 and BAR 264 had high proline with low Na+/K+ ratio and moderate iron nutrient content. This study revealed that, the genotypes BAR242 followed by BAR252 and BAR264 were observed to produce better yield than checks CO (KV) 2 and MDU 1 with optimum nutrient (8.21mg/100g iron). Hence, BAR242 and BAR252 could be considered as sodicity tolerant genotypes which could be exploited for future breeding programmes under sodicity.

Keywords

• barnyard millet
• proline content
• iron nutrient
• na+/k+ ratio
• sodicity