RAJKUMAR PATEL, R. A. GAMI, K. G. KUGASHIYA, MANSHI J. PARMAR, H. N. ZALA, N. N. PRAJAPATI, R. N. PATEL AND D. R. CHAUDHARY
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, C. P. College of Agriculture, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India
Centre for Millets Research, S. D. Agricultural University, Deesa, Gujarat, India.
Centre for Crop Improvement, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India
Department of Seed technology, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Gujarat, India
Agricultural Research Station, S. D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar, Ladol, India
*(e-mail : ramangami@sdau.edu.in)
(Received: 01 June 2026; Accepted: 20 June 2026)

SUMMARY

An experimental material consists of twenty-one pearl millet F₁ hybrids developed through a Line × Tester design (3 lines × 7 testers) at SDAU, Deesa, during summer 2024 and evaluated at the Centre for Millets Research, SDAU, Deesa; Centre for Crop Improvement, SDAU, Sardarkrushinagar; SDAU, Ladol and Regional Research Station, SDAU, Kothara in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. The study involved the evaluation of nine traits, viz., days to flowering, plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, earhead length, earhead girth, days to maturity, 1000 grains weight, grain yield per plant and dry fodder yield per plant. A multivariate analysis was carried out to indentify diverse genotype for breeding purpose. Mahalanobis D² analysis revealed substantial genetic diversity among the 21 pearl millet hybrids. Dry fodder yield per plant and earhead length contributed the most to genetic divergence, followed by grain yield per plant and 1000-grain weight. Cluster analysis grouped the hybrids into nine distinct clusters, with the highest inter-cluster distance observed between Clusters IV and VII, indicating that hybrids from these clusters could be used as promising parents for hybridization to obtain superior recombinants. Principal component analysis showed that the first three principal components explained 73.11% of the total variation. The variation was mainly associated with earhead length, earhead girth, grain yield per plant, dry fodder yield per plant, plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity and number of productive tillers per plant. Overall, Mahalanobis D² analysis, cluster analysis and principal component analysis effectively revealed the extent of genetic diversity and identified promising hybrids for future pearl millet breeding programmes.

Key words: Pearl millet, multivariate analysis, Mahalanobis’ D², cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis

105-114

ROHIT KUMAR, MAGAN SINGH, SANJEEV KUMAR, SAKSHI NIMBAL, JATIN BADWAL, KARAN SINGH AND SUNNY KUMAR
Agronomy Section, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001 (Haryana), India
Department of Agronomy, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
Department of Agriculture, Samastipur-848 205 (Bihar), India
*(e-mail: rohitdholpuria@hau.ac.in)
(Received: 14 May 2026; Accepted : 22 June 2026)

SUMMARY

A field experiment was conducted at the Forage Research and Management Centre, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, during the Rabi season in 2024-25 to study the effect of Phosphorus and Calcium management on growth, yield and economics of fodder turnip (Brassica rapa L.) during the lean period. The experiment consisted of six treatments (T₁: Control, T₂: No Phosphorus (P), T₃: 75% RDF of P, T₄: 100% RDF of P, T₅: 75% RDF of P + Foliar application of Calcium, T₆: 100% RDF of P + Foliar application of Calcium) in a randomised block design with five replications. The results revealed that significantly higher plant height at harvest (73.94 cm), number of leaves per plant (19.40), and leaf area (796.6 cm2) were observed in T₆ (100% RDF of P + foliar application of calcium), outperforming all treatments with the highest crop growth rate (13.90 g/m2/ day), green fodder yield (68.78 t/ha) and dry fodder yield (7.14 t/ha), registering 49.43 % and 46.31 % gains in green and dry fodder, respectively, over the control. Treatment T₆ also recorded the maximum benefit-cost ratio (5.09).

Key words: Calcium, green fodder, lean period, phosphorus, turnip

115-119

PRATEEK KUMAR, DALVINDER PAL SINGH, PARVEEN KUMAR, KOMAL AND RAHUL PUNIA
Department of Plant Pathology, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding (Forage Section), Department of Agriculture Meteorology
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail: prateekberwalhau@gmail.com)
(Received: 14 May 2026; Accepted: 24 June 2026)

SUMMARY

A field study was conducted during Kharif 2021 at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, to investigate disease progression of bacterial blight of cluster bean caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. cyamopsidis and its relationship with weather parameters. The crop was sown on July 23, 2021 and disease severity was recorded at weekly intervals. Disease progression followed a sigmoid pattern, increasing from 2% at 7 DAS to 87% at 84 DAS. The area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) was 3575, indicating severe disease development. Correlation analysis revealed positive association with rainfall (r = 0.78) and relative humidity (r = 0.72), while maximum temperature showed negative association (r = “0.55). Multiple regression analysis resulted in the model: Y = “31.87 + 0.41RH + 0.19RF “ 0.63Tmax (R² = 0.91, p < 0.01) indicating strong predictive ability. The results suggest that moisture-related parameters play a dominant role in disease development and can be utilized for forecasting under semi-arid conditions.

Key words: Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. cyamopsidis, bacterial blight, cluster bean, bacterial blight, epidemiology, AUDPC, weather parameters, regression

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