Author(s):

Suvarna

Abstract: Niger is a minor oilseed crop of India. It is cultivated in Ethiopia and India. The crop is cultivated in unproductive lands, marginal lands and hilly areas. It is a neglected crop and farmers are cultivating local varieties. It is a highly cross pollinated crop and is self incompatible. The capitula are very small and difficult to make hybridisation. So mutation breeding is the option to create variations. Physical and chemical mutagens are used to create mutations. An effort was made to review the mutation breeding in niger. A very limited work was carried out on mutation breeding in niger. Mutants were isolated for high oleic acid and high oil yield (Shabnum et al., 2011), improved oil content and early flowering (Naik and Murthy, 2009) and improvement in seed weight per plant (Suvarna et al., 2020). Other mutagenic effects of physical and chemical mutagens were also reported in niger (Maloo and Agrawal, 1995; Suvarna et al, 2020, Premajyoti, 2006). Meiotic properties of C₁ plants was also studied (Dagne, 2001). Mutation breeding helps in isolating mutants with desirable traits. This crop needs more attention to improve the seed yield and oil content.

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