NEW DNA TECHNIQUE SAVES PEARL MILLET FROM DEVASTATING DISEASE IN INDIA

In February 2005, a new pearl millet hybrid was released in India offering renewed hope to many farmers whose millet crop has begun to succumb to the devastating disease of downy mildew. The new hybrid, which is more resistant to the disease, has been produced in record time by a team of international scientists using modern DNA techniques.

Haryana officials released the improved version of the popular early-maturing pearl millet hybrid HHB 67. The original HHB 67 is grown on over half a million hectares in the Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan, and is starting to succumb to the devastating blight of downy mildew disease after more than 10 years of widespread and repeated cultivation.

One parent of the new hybrid HHB 67-Improved was developed at the international research centre of ICRISAT-Patancheru. It used a DNA fingerprinting technique to speed up the transfer of genes for downy mildew resistance. This technique does not produce a GMO but a conventional hybrid and took an international team of scientists over a decade to develop. It is the first time that a crop variety produced by this DNA technique has been promoted in India.

Plant breeders at ICRISAT-Patancheru worked closely with the Agricultural University of Haryana, who produced the original HHB 67, to develop this improved hybrid. The technique they used is called 'marker-assisted selection' and was three times faster than the conventional techniques used to improve the second parent of the hybrid.

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