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ICAR-All India Coordinated Millet Improvement Project (AICMIP) was established in the year 1965 with its headquarters at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. The headquarters of the project were shifted to Pune in 1977. Later on pearl millet was separated from the rest of the millet crops and the All India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project (AICPMIP) was established in 1985 with its headquarters at Pune as an independent coordinated project. The ICAR shifted, in July 1995, the headquarters of AICPMIP to Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan, the state which occupies nearly half of pearl millet area of the country. AICPMIP has a network of thirteen centers in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The AICPMIP centers pursue mandated activities in pearl millet improvement, production and protection.The All India Coordinated Pearl Millet Improvement Project (AICPMIP) has played a pioneering role in developing a diverse range of improved breeding lines and parental lines of hybrids. These lines have been used extensively to develop and commercialize a large number of hybrids.
Pearl millet is the major millet occupying first position among all the millets in India followed by Sorghum and Ragi. It is rightly termed as “nutricereal” as it is a good source of energy, carbohydrate, protein, fat, ash, dietary fiber, iron and zinc. It is a rich source of energy (361 Kcal/100g) comparable to sorghum (349 Kcal/100g), wheat
- Pearl millet area has reduced from 12.34 million hectare in 1975 to 8.16 million hectare in 2015 however, productivity has increased from 4.6 qtls/ha in 1975 to 11.8 qtls. in 1915 and consequently production also has increased from 5.61 million tonnes to 9.56 million tonnes.
News/Events
Project Coordinator’s message
Pearl millet (PennisetumglaucumL.) is the most widely grown staple food of majority of poor and small land holders in Asia and Africa. It is consumed as both feed and fodder for livestock. Pearl millet excels all other cereals due to these features – C4 plant with high photosynthetic efficiency and high dry matter production capacity. It is well adapted to grow under most adverse agro-climatic conditions characterized by drought, low soil fertility and high temperatures.