Evaluation and development of finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) genotypes for cultivation in high hills of Nepal

Abstract

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) is an important crop used for food, forage and industrial products. It is dominantly grown under maize/millet relay system at mid-hills of Nepal. The present study includes a series of experiments, namely, National Observation Nursery (NON), Initial Evaluation Trial (IET), Coordinated Varietal Trial (CVT) and Farmers’ Field Trials (FFT) that were conducted at Hill Crops Research Program (HCRP), Dolakha in 2012 and 2013. The research objective of the study was to identify high yielding genotypes of finger millet for high hills of Nepal. Mean data over years showed that in observation nursery genotypes, namely, Acc-6407, Acc-2339, KLE-2339, KLE-216 and KLE-559 were superior for their grain yield. Similarly, genotypes found promising in IET were Acc-2370, GE-0012, KLE-178, Acc-0124 which were promoted to and tested in CVT. Likewise genotypes, namely, KLE-236, GE-0116 and Acc-6022 were found high yielding genotypes in CVT and they were promoted to and in FFT. Similarly, genotypes, namely, Acc-2311, NE-1703-34, KLE-159 and Acc-433-1 produced high yield, thus these genotypes derived from FFT would be pipeline genotypes for release to high hills areas of Nepal.