
Following the principal of demand driven research, key priority areas identified for SA program in Consultation meetings with partners held in 2009, 2011 and 2013 were: blast disease, forage, and heat tolerance. Breeding materials comprising of hybrid parents and germplasm accessions having multi-pathotype resistance to blast were identified, and were utilized in the development of new Blast Resistant breeding materials. Multi-year and multi-location screening of breeding materials were done in high heat stress ecology (air temperatures of >42oC) during summers of 2009-2015 and stable sources of heat tolerance were identified, and new wave of breeding materials have been generated. On forage research, new high biomass materials were identified and utilized to generate hybrids and OPVs providing green forage yields of 45-55 tons ha-1. With the objective of expanding pearl millet hybrid technology to Eastern and Southern African (ESA) region, hybrids were evaluated in ESA region between 2012-2015 which led to identification of some promising hybrids which out yielded local checks by 20-40% in grain yield.