TY - JOUR AU - M Elangovan, K Ganesamurthy, S Rajaram, K Sankarapandian and P Kiran Babu PY - 2012/06/30 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Collection and conservation of Sorghum landraces from Tamil Nadu JF - <i>Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding</i> JA - EJPB VL - 3 IS - 2 SE - Research Article DO - UR - https://ejplantbreeding.org/index.php/EJPB/article/view/498 AB - Landraces are the varieties nurtured and cultivated by the farmers through traditional method of selection over thedecades. The “landraces” are the primitive cultivars grown by farmers and their successors since ancient times. TheDirectorate of Sorghum Research (DSR) has explored Tamil Nadu and collected 150 accessions during 2003-2010.DSR has collected important landraces during its exploration, among them are Deshi, Irungu cholam, Kaka cholam,Karareddu cholam, Kari cholam, Karuncholam, Karuppu irunggu, Kolumeddu cholam, Kovilpatti cholam, Makkataicholam, Manjal cholam, Matthappu cholam, Nathu cholam, Nattu cholam, Pei (Thalaiviracham) cholam, Periyamanjal cholam, Rasa vellai cholam, Sembavala irunggu, Sencholam, Senkatan cholam, Sevappu cholam, Sivappuirunggu, Tenkasi vellai, Vailkattu cholam, Valapoo sigappu cholam, Veettu cholam, Vella cholam, Vellai cholam, andVellai nattu cholam are very important and traditionally grown by the farmers over the centuries. Maximum frequencyof 16 vellai cholam and 14 each of sencholam and irungu cholam were found in the collections. The highest number oftwenty-one accessions were collected from Coimbatore district followed by 19 from Karur district. Forage landracesare very common in these regions as food and fodder values of the crop are considered essential the botanical raceBicolor had the maximum frequency (60 acc.) followed by durra race (42 acc.). Tamil Nadu has both the primitiverace bicolor and advanced race durra. Most of the accessions were collected during were from the rabi (post-rainy)season (79 acc.) followed by late-kharif season (42 acc.). The landraces were grown as sole crop (121 acc.) in manyparts of the state and as mixed crop either with green gram, red gram, black gram, bengal gram, cowpea, lablab andItalian millet in some pockets. ER -