Studies on morphological characterization, seed quality parameters and genetic divergence in finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) germplasm
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Date
2015-06
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College of Forestry, Ranichauri Campus , V.C.S.G. Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry
Abstract
The present investigation was conducted during Kharif, 2014 at Research Block, Department of Crop Improvement and Seed Testing at Department of Seed Science and Technology, V. C. S. G. Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, College of Forestry, Ranichauri Campus with 35 diverse genotypes of finger millet including three checks viz., PRM-1, PRM-2 and VL-149. Observations were recorded for field parameters, diseases incidence and seed quality parameters. The characters studied field parameters were days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity, plant height, flag leaf area, peduncle length, number of leaves on main culm, number of productive tillers per plant, number of fingers per ear, finger length, ear length, biological yield per plant, harvest index, 1000 seed weight, grain yield per plant. The incidence of diseases for neck blast, finger blast and severity of cercospora leaf spot were recorded. The seed quality parameters were recorded for first count, standard germination, root length, shoot length , seedling length, seedling fresh weight, seedling dry weight, relative growth index, vigour index-I, vigour index-II and mean daily germination. The data was utilized for estimation of mean, range, coefficients of variation, heritability and genetic advance, correlation coefficients, path coefficient and genetic divergence.
The genotype exhibiting high mean performance for grain yield along with high performance for some other yield components were IC-308878, IC-257855, IC-308916, IC-308905 and VL-149. The genotypes IC-3522490, IC-3543177, EC-522489, IC-308771, IC-354384, EC-522482, IC-308853, IC-354381, IC-354410, IC-308928 and PRM-1 were free from incidence of neck blast and incidence of finger blast. IC-308853, IC-354381, IC-308771 and VL-149 showed lowest value for severity of cercospora leaf spot. The genotype IC-308884 was highest for seedling length, vigour index-I and vigour index-II. Genotype IC-354383 was observed maximum germination percentage, relative growth index and mean daily germination. High magnitude of phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were noticed for biological yield per plant, finger length, productive tillers per plant, grain yield per plant, peduncle length and harvest index. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for biological yield per plant, plant height and days to 50 per cent flowering. Grain yield per plant exhibited very strong positive association with biological yield per plant, harvest index, number of productive tillers per plant, 1000 seed weight and peduncle length at phenotypic and genotypic level. Path-coefficient analysis indentified biological yield per plant and harvest index as major direct contributors towards grain yield per plant at genotypic and phenotypic level. The 35 genotypes of finger millet were grouped into 6 clusters irrespective of geographical diversity, indicating no parallelism between geographic and genetic diversity. The cluster pairs exhibiting very high inter-cluster distances were cluster IV and V, cluster IV and VI, cluster II and IV, cluster I and IV, cluster III and V and cluster III and IV. Considering cluster mean and genetic distance the crossing of entry of clusters IV with entries of cluster V and those genotypes of cluster VI would be fruitful for obtaining transgressive segregants for developing high yielding and better quality finger millet varieties.
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