1. Little millet, Panicum sumatrense, an Under-utilized Multipurpose Crop
Vetriventhan Mani and Hari D Upadhyaya
Genebank, ICRISAT, Patancheru, India
1st International Agrobiodiversity Congress, Nov. 6-9, 2016, New Delhi, India

2. Introduction Panicum sumatrense Nana Robusta
Little millet, Panicum sumatrense Roth. Ex. Roem. & Schult. a tetraploid (2n = 4x =36) C4 crop
Domesticated in India, and it is being grown in India, China, Indonesia, Burma, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
Subrace
Race
Panicum sumatrense
Nana
Laxa
Erecta
Robusta
Compacta
de Wet et al. 1983

3. Little millet: Why it is important?
Nutritional and Health benefits
Good source of energy, protein, fiber and minerals
rich in iron (9.3 mg per 100g)
crude fiber (7.6%)
as compared to rice,
wheat, maize, and sorghum (Saleh et
al 2013)
Used as food and fodder purposes
Low GI index, ingredient in multigrain and gluten-free cereal products
Agronomic Advantages
Short duration
Diverse adaptation
High water use efficiency
Drought tolerant
Waterlogging tolerant
High biomass
Stay-green at harvest - useful as green fodder
One of the Under-utilized small millets

4. Objectives Materials and methods
To assess the diversity of little millet germplasm for important agronomic traits
Identify high grain and biomass yielding little millet accessions
Materials and methods
200 accessions of little millet (including little millet core collection, Upadhyaya et al. 2014)
Alpha-design with two replications
Plot size : 4 m x 60 cm, 10 cm plant-to-plant
Soil type : Red soil
Observation : 8 qualitative and 15 quantitative traits
Race
Subrace
No. of accessions
Nana (135)
Erecta 29
Laxa
106
Robusta (65)
Compacta 35 30

5. Range of variation Trait Range Mean Entire Robusta Nana
Days to 50% flowering
59.8
79.5 a
50.1 b
Plant height, cm
145.7
167.1 a
134.9 b
Basal tillers
9.8
9.2 b
10.1 a
Culm thickness, mm
5.2
7.2 a
4.2 b
Flag leaf blade length, mm
276.2
261.5 b
283.0 a
Flag leaf blade width, mm
10.5
10.8 a
10.4 b
Flag leaf sheath length, mm
111.5
107.3 b
113.4 a
Panicle exsertion, mm
23.7
26.2 a
22.6 b
Inflorescence length, mm
299.8
293.0 b
302.7 a
Number of nodes on main culm
7.4
9.0 a
6.6 b
Infl. longest primary branch length
182.6
163.9 b
191.4 a
Inflorescence no. primary branches
13.7
14.1 a
13.4 b
Inf. no. secondary branches
59.6
65.5 a
56.0 b
Dry matter yield, g plant-1
61.4
88.4 a
48.5 b
Grain yield, g plant -1
7.8 a
7.1 b
Robust is late flowering, tall plants, thick culm and high grain and biomass yielding as compared to accessions of nana
Means were tested by Newman–Keuls test and means followed by different letters are significantly different at P= 0.05

6. Diversity and clustering
Robusta (Blue and purple)
Blue - Compacta; purple - laxa
Nana (red and green)
Red – erecta; Green - laxa
Robusta
Nana
PC 1 (40% of variation)
PC 2 (18%)
Fig. 1. PCA Scatter plot of little millet accessions
Fig. 2. Clustering based on 1st 5PCs
PC1: Days to 50% flowering; plant height, cm; culm thickness; number of node; Inf. Secondary branch number; dry matter yield
PC2: FLSL; Inf. Lower primary branch length; Flag leaf blade length

7. Flowering vs plant height, grain yield and biomass1. 2. 3.

8. High biomass and grain yield (3 acc)
Germplasm sources for high grain yield and biomass
IPmr
Origin
Race
Subrace DF
PLHT
Dry-matter yield, g plant-1
Grain yield, g plant-1
High biomass (9 acc)
858
India
Robusta
Laxa
86.36
169.87
159.47
8.74
1043
Compacta
80.78
175.95
148.11
9.13
1070
Nana
Erecta
82.95
190.06
147.86
7.12
877
84.94
172.39
132.56
7.67
862
86.64
177.87
131.48
9.66
855
80.23
160.51
131.23
7.65
997
85.91
179.98
128.87
9.65
1049
80.18
176.47
127.99
9.42
713
86.27
172.9
125.35
9.6
High grain yield (5 acc.)
1021
80.22
155.84
120.75
12.09
841
74.03
154.73
74.24
11.49
1017
62.66
145.94
64.17
11.45
983
55.83
163.21
61.95
10.35
712
60.83
171.12
93.95
10.08
High biomass and grain yield (3 acc)
1063
63.27
173.25
138.24
10.69
1040
85.11
175.82
132.47
10.02
1000
174.53
124.76
9.94

9. Germplasm sources for high grain yield and biomass

10. Germplasm sources for high grain yield and biomass
High biomass

11. Conclusion
Little millet is a multi-purpose potential climate resilient crop, used as food and fodder
It has potential to use as a bioenergy crop
Agronomic Advantage: Annual, C4, short duration, tolerant to drought and waterlogging, require less inputs, wide spread adaptability
Accessions of robust race produce high biomass
Identified sources for high grain and biomass yielding accessions serves as potential starting materials for testing and further release as varieties
Biomass quality (ie. Amenability of little millet for industrial conversion into bioethanol) & Fodder quality (crude protein, fiber and fat contents, digestibility etc.)
Genome sequencing and Genetic dissection of important traits

12. IPmr 1063
Thank You