Aberystwyth, Wales
February 27, 2008
Poor subsistence farmers in areas
of Africa and Asia will be the direct beneficiaries of important
research into the genetic mapping and marker-assisted breeding
of pearl millet carried out by scientists at the
Institute of Grassland and
Environmental Research (IGER), Aberystwyth, Wales.
The four year project has received a substantial £700,000
Special Initiative Grant on Sustainable Agriculture for
International Development from the Biotechnology and Biological
Research Council (BBSRC) and Department for International
Development (DfID) and will allow the research team led by Dr
Rattan Yadav to research the genetic potential for improving
pearl millet productivity in drought prone regions of Africa and
Asia.
“Key segments of pearl millet DNA are already known to IGER
scientists and plant breeders in India have already made use of
fundamental genetic research carried out at IGER over the years,
but declining water resources and unpredictable rainfall now
call for further research into efficient breeding for
drought-prone environments,” said Dr Rattan Yadav , Principal
Investigator at IGER.
Pearl millet is the staple crop grown by subsistence farmers in
the hottest driest regions of sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian
subcontinent but declining water resources and unpredictable
rainfall pose serious threats to crop productivity. Climate
change scenarios indicate that water shortage and shortening of
the effective growing season will be increasingly likely in
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia , increasing the need for
short-duration cereals such as pearl millet with enhanced
drought tolerance.
“The ultimate goal of this project is to improve food security
and farmers' livelihoods in the most vulnerable zones of the
Semi-Arid Tropics which are dependent on rain-fed crop
production by improving the drought tolerance of otherwise
acceptable and adapted pearl millet plants cultivars,” added Dr
Yadav.
Although pearl millet is better adapted to water stress compared
to other cereals, drought remains one of the most important
factors in reducing yield and yield stability of this staple
food grain crop of the world's poorest people. In the marginal
crop-livestock production systems of these regions, food
security is a very big issue for most rural households.
Improving pearl millet's tolerance to drought by genetic mapping
and efficient plant breeding offers a sustainable route to
alleviate poverty and food security of pearl millet farmers in
sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia .
“Marker–assisted breeding methods have the potential to
dramatically improve the efficiency of breeding pearl millet
hybrids that have improved drought tolerance, together with
local adaptation requirements combined with locally-preferred
grain quality and improved yield attributes,” said Dr Yadav.
Generic knowledge and technologies developed in this
Aberystwyth-led project will contribute to the global pool of
knowledge in the important research area of drought tolerance
across species and facilitate increased crop production in
water-limited environments globally.
Commenting on the new research, Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State for International Development and
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said “Investing in
science and research is essential to provide poor farmers with
the seeds, knowledge and tools they need to make a better life
for themselves. This research, bringing together UK , African
and Asian scientists, has the potential to revolutionise farming
in the developing world and reduce global poverty. The UK is
delighted to support this initiative.”
While immediately applicable to pearl millet, much of the
information generated for this important agricultural trait will
have benefits to other cereals and forage grasses due to the
close genomic relationships among these species and also
indirectly benefit other agricultural crops.
The research is an international collaboration between IGER
Aberystwyth, the International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics in Patancheru, India, the All India
Co-ordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, Mandore, India,
and the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. |
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