Development of a New Foxtail Millet Germplasm with Super Early Maturity and High Iron Content

Super Early Maturation No.2 is a new foxtail millet germplasm developed by using the targeted-character-gene-bank-breeding method. It has several outstanding characteristics. (1) Super early maturity. It can normally mature in Bashang, Hebei Province, China, where the altitude is around 1 400 meters, and it needs 1650°C of effective accumulated temperature in the growing period. (2) Millet is rich in iron. The iron content of the millet of Super Early Maturation No.2 is 54.10 mg kg−1, which is 62.0% higher than the average iron content of the foxtail millet varieties in China. (3) High crude fat content. Its crude fat content is 6.24%, which is 54.1% higher than the average content of foxtail millet varieties in China. (4) High crude protein content. The average of the crude protein content of all the foxtail millet varieties in China is 12.71%, only 5% varieties surpass 14%, however, the crude protein content of Super Early Maturation No.2 is 14.36%, which is rare in improved varieties of foxtail millet in China. (5) Overall characteristics are good.