DUS Testing & Guidelines

DUS Testing

IIMR is designated as the Nodal centre for Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) testing in sorghum for the grant of plant variety protection (PVP) under the PPV&FR Act, 2001. The National Guidelines for the conduct of test for DUS in sorghum was published in February 2007 by the PPV&FR Authority, New Delhi. The DUS test in sorghum involves characterization of candidate varieties for 33 descriptors. All the new candidate varieties are tested for 2 similar growing seasons, while VCK/farmer’s varieties are tested for a single growing season. The DUS testing trials are monitored in every season by the Monitoring Committee constituted by the PPV&FRA.

IIMR is conducting DUS test in sorghum since 2008; so far DUS testing has been completed in 117 candidate varieties and final data have been forwarded to PPV&FRA. IIMR is maintaining more than 110 reference varieties used in DUS testing of candidate varieties, and the reference variety database is submitted to PPV&FRA from time to time. IIMR (DSR) has received the Best DUS test Centre award during 2011 for its outstanding achievements in the area of DUS testing, training, documentation and publication.

IIMR also acts as the nodal agency for filing PVP applications for all the varieties developed under AICRP-Sorghum network. So far IIMR has registered 75 sorghum varieties under new/extant/VCK categories with PPV&FRA, and ICAR holds the PVP rights for these sorghum varieties.

DUS Guidelines