Teamwork delivers biotechnology products to Indian small-holder crop-livestock producers: Pearl millet hybrid “HHB 67 Improved” enters seed delivery pipeline

Abstract

67, released in 1990 by CCS Haryana Agricultural University, is one such single-cross pearl millet hybrid. 67 is highly popular because of its extra-early maturity (it needs less than 65 days from sowing to grain maturity) and is now grown on over 500 000 ha in Haryana and Rajasthan, India. Recent surveys have indicated that this hybrid is starting to succumb to downy mildew (DM; caused by the pseudo-fungus Sclerospora graminicola), showing up to 30% incidence in farmers' fields. By rapidly adopting hybrid HHB 67 Improved, farmers in Haryana and Rajasthan can avoid grain production losses of Rs36 crores (US$8 million) which would be expected in the first year of a major DM outbreak on the original 67.