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Evaluating the Efficacy of Synthetic Fibre Pollination Control Bags in Sorghum During the Rainy Season

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Evaluating the Efficacy of Synthetic Fibre Pollination Control Bags in Sorghum During the Rainy Season OPEN ACCESS International Journal of Plant Breeding and Genetics ISSN 1819-3595 DOI: 10.3923/ijpbg.2017.39.54 Research Article Evaluating the Efficacy of Synthetic Fibre Pollination Control Bags in Sorghum During the Rainy Season 1Anil Gaddameedi, 1Are Ashok Kumar, 2Rahul Madhavrao Phuke, 3Daljit Singh Virk and 4Hannah Senior 1Sorghum Breeding, ICRISAT, Patancheru 502324, Telangana, India 2Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Research Station, Indore 452001, Madhya Pradesh, India 3School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGy), Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales LL57 2UW, UK 4PBS International, Salter Road, Scarborough, YO11 3UP, UK Abstract Background and Objective: Sorghum breeders traditionally use paper pollination control bags for hybridisation and generation advance. However, these bags get torn off in the rainy season and by birds searching for food. High incidence of grain mold also occurs in these bags. The major objective of this study was to test novel nonwoven synthetic fabrics as replacement for paper bags. Methodology: Three newly developed pollination control bags from synthetic polyester and polypropylene nonwoven fibres were tested against the paper bags at Patancheru, ICRISAT, India on four sorghum genotypes for bag traits and many quantitative characters in the rainy seasons of 2014 and 2015 years that were diverse in total rainfall which was 231.9 mm more in 2015 compared with 2014 (77% higher) with 11 more rainy days than that in 2014 (299.3 mm in 42 rainy days). Data were analysed using the factorial analysis of variance and Pearson’s correlations. Results: Bags were evaluated for three bag traits: Water resistance, intactness and ease of handling. The duraweb® SG1 and duraweb® SG2 were superior to other bag types for all these traits with duraweb® SG1 being significantly superior to duraweb® SG2. The duraweb® SG3 bag was similar to the standard paper bag for all bag traits. While bags did not show significant differences for grain yield they significantly differed for other six quantitative traits; duraweb® SG1 was the best performer followed very closely by duraweb® SG2 bag. The duraweb® SG1 bag was significantly superior to no bagging as well as all other types of bags for grain mold resistance. On average 12% bird damage on panicles was observed under paper bags compared with 36% on the uncovered panicles. Contrastingly, no bird damage was observed under bags made of all three novel materials. Conclusion: The new pollination bags made from nonwoven fabrics provide an effective alternative to traditional paper bags as they ensure near-ambient micro-environment within them for seed development and are strong enough to resist wind, rain and bird damage while allowing aeration to minimize fungal development in the rainy season. Key words: Sorghum, pollination bags, nonwoven fabrics, bird damage, grain mold, quantitative traits Received: September 29, 2016 Accepted: November 25, 2016 Published: December 15, 2016 Citation: Anil Gaddameedi, Are Ashok Kumar, Rahul Madhavrao Phuke, Daljit Singh Virk and Hannah Senior, 2017. Evaluating the efficacy of synthetic fibre pollination control bags in sorghum during the rainy season. Int. J. Plant Breed. Genet., 11: 39-54. Corresponding Author: Daljit Singh Virk, School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography (SENRGy), Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales LL57 2UW, UK Copyright: © 2017 Anil Gaddameedi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing Interest: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its supporting information files. Int. J. Plant Breed. Genet., 11 (1): 39-54, 2017 INTRODUCTION micro-environment within them for seed development. The new materials are hardy enough to resist wind and rain Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a damage while allowing aeration to minimize fungal 7,8 self-pollinated diploid (2n = 2x = 20) C4 grass with high development . However the utility of these bags has been photosynthetic efficiency. It is one among the few resilient rarely tested in sorghum9. Therefore, this study explored crops that can adapt well to predicted climate change effects, hitherto rarely investigated area of improving the efficiency of particularly increased temperature and higher incidence of plant breeding-hybridization and generation advance, by extreme rainfall events in addition to increasing soil salinity. It providing experimental evidence that the traditional paper is the fifth most important cereal crop after wheat, maize, rice pollination bags need replaced with novel nonwoven fabrics and barley in both area and production and is the dietary for better seed harvest. It lays foundation for new research staple of more than 500 million people in 30 countries1. area of developing, testing and using pollination bags made Sorghum is one of the cheapest sources of energy and from novel nonwoven fabrics and how they provide more micronutrients and it supplies more than 50% micronutrient ambient micro-environment for healthy seed development needs in the low-income group populations2,3. The sorghum within them than the paper bags. area in India (6 m ha) was about 13% of the world’s area in The objectives of the present investigation were: 20144. The crop is primarily grown in the Southern states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh which C Compare the effectiveness of novel pollination bags produce about 80% of all-India production. It is also grown in fabricated from newly developed nonwoven fabrics for Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan to a lesser extent. In healthy seed development in the rainy season sorghum India, sorghum is grown in both rainy (kharif) and post-rainy C Evaluate different bag types for traits that could influence (rabi) seasons as grain and as stover for livestock, particularly seed development in the dry season when feed resources are in short supply. Hence dual purpose types of sorghum are generally MATERIALS AND METHODS preferred1,3. The productivity is higher in the rainy season (1.2 t haG1) because of adoption of improved hybrids and the Trials were conducted during the rainy season of 2014 crop is grown in better moisture regimes compared to the and 2015 at Patancheru campus of ICRISAT in India (altitude post-rainy season crop which is grown entirely with residual 545 m above mean sea level, latitude 17.530 N and longitude soil moisture where Open Pollinated Varieties (OPVs) are the 78.270 E). Three newly developed pollination bags were tested cultivars of choice resulting in lower yields (0.7 t haG1). for their comparative efficacy along with the standard paper However, in recent years, sorghum cultivation has shifted to bags used by sorghum breeders in India. The new pollination the post-rainy season because of heavy incidence of grain bags were made of nonwoven air-permeable polypropylene mold in the rainy season resulting in poorer quality of the or polyester materials. All the new bags were designed to be grain than the post-rainy season crop. light in weight but stronger than paper to resist damage from From a crop breeding point of view, rainy season is bird attack, high winds and rainy weather. Unlike the paper detrimental to crossing programmes and advancement of bags, new bags made from synthetic materials are reusable selfed progenies of breeding stocks because grain molds after cleaning by washing or autoclaving and have greater air develop and bird damage can be considerable where fewer permeability allowing exchange of temperature and humidity plants of a given genotype are grown in small plots5. Attempts to create ambient micro-environment within them10. The five to protect developing seeds from such damages have bag treatments were: traditionally been accomplished by covering the panicles with pollination bags. The maintenance of thousands of C Duraweb® SG3 pollination bag: A gusseted bag, 420 mm germplasm accessions of sorghum collections in many length×140 mm width×60 mm depth, made from countries and to preserve their genetic identity requires the carded, point-bonded, nonwoven polyester having use of a large number of pollination bags6. While the 55 g mG2 mass. It has very open structure to maximize traditionally used paper bags can be torn off in the rainy permeability season by wet and windy weather or by birds, attempts to C Duraweb® SG1 pollination bag: 3D bag of size 420 mm replace them with more effective bags have been very scanty length×140 mm width×60 mm depth, made of layers of due to non-availability of synthetic fabric options. Recently, point-bonded nonwoven polypropylene with the goal of newly developed nonwoven polyester and polypropylene maximizing air permeability while also creating strength fabrics have been developed to ensure near-ambient and the ability to block pollen. It has 60 g mG2 mass 40 Int. J. Plant Breed. Genet., 11 (1): 39-54, 2017 Table 1: Specification of new nonwoven fabrics used in the manufacture of pollination bags Test Duraweb® SG1 Duraweb® SG2 Duraweb® SG3 Polymers Polypropylene Polyester Polyester Mass per unit area (g mG2)60 70 55 Thickness (mm) 0.36 0.11 0.6 Tensile strength (MD) (N/50 mm) 117 360 123 Tensile strength (CD) (N/50 mm) 95 190 108 Tear strength (MD) (N) 37* 7.0 9.3 Tear strength (CD) (N) 46* 8.0 8.7
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