Prabhas Kumar Shukla, Ramesh Pratap Singh, Alok Kumar Pandey, Krishna Kumar Pandey, Abhishek Singh, Manoj Kumar Mishra, Ajay Tripathi1, Ram Ashish, Ashish Kumar Shukla, Prashant Singh and Shashi M. Sagar
Abstract
Pearl millet, also known as Pennisetum glaucum L. is the most widely grown drought-tolerant warm-season coarse grain cereal and is a key staple in arid and semi-arid ecologies. Pearl millet thrives in low pH or highly salinized soils. Because of its resilience to harsh growing circumstances, it can be produced in locations where other cereal crops, such as maize or wheat, would not survive. It is a summer annual crop that is ideal for rotation and double cropping. This study evaluated the biochemical characteristics of five pearl millet cultivars - Pusa Composite- 443, Hybrid Pusa-1201, Pusa Composite-383, Pusa Composite-701, and Pusa Composite- 612- cultivated on partially reclaimed sodic soils. Trials were conducted over two Kharif seasons (2022-2023 and 2023-2024) on partially reclaimed sodic soils in Ayodhya, India, adopting a splitplot design. The experiment involved three nutrient management treatments: an unamended control, recommended dose of fertilizers (N:P:K @ 80:40:40), and farmyard manure (FYM @ 12 tons ha{¹). Hybrid Pusa 1201 consistently outperformed others across biochemical traits such as crude protein, carbohydrate, tryptophan, phenol, reducing sugars, lipids, and fibre. RDF treatments notably enhanced nutrient quality over FYM and untreated controls. These findings support integrating hybrid selection and balanced fertilization for nutritional improvement and resilience of millet in marginal soils.