Bastan the First Cultivar of Foxtail Millet for Emergency Feed Production

In order to select and release of Bastan a new cultivar of foxtail millet, after preliminary selections in small millet germplasm a research was carried during 1997-2003 in Karaj, Golestan and Dezful. During these years production potential of 10 foxtail millet genotypes was determined in a randomized complete block design for 3 years. The different characteristics include, leaf size, stem diameter, plant height,1000 seed weight, growth period, plant type, response to fungal diseases (in terms of natural inoculation), respond to lodging, Birds damage, seed falling and finally seed and forage yield was recorded. Result showed, genotypes No. 1, 3, 6, 9 and 10 are the best, but the genotype No. 9 (KFM9) the superiority to other genotypes. These genotypes, while has been the desirable traits such as earliness, tolerance to the natural losing, tolerance to birds’ damage and no lodging. It’s mentioned also having yield 2.5t h-1, dry forage yield 3.3 h-1 and fresh forage yield 20 t h-1, as a dual purpose genotype was released, and introduced and named as Bastan.Before the releasing of the Bastan it was evaluated and compared to local varieties at two locations (Yazd and Zabol). Bastan showed higher yield (dry matter, fresh and dry forage and grain yield) than local varieties.