SANJAY KUMAR SANADYA*, S. S. SHEKHAWAT AND SMRUTISHREE SAHOO
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding,
Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner-334 006 (Rajasthan), India
*(e-mail : sanjaypbg94@gmail.com)
(Received : 25 August 2022; Accepted : 24 December 2022)
SUMMARY
Globally sewan grasslands are predominantly found in arid and semi-arid tropics with other arid grasses. Thirty sewan accessions selected based on dry matter yield were evaluated to assess genetic variability, correlations and divergence for agronomical traits and yield. Trait dry matter yield showed significant positive correlation and direct effect with green fodder yield and dry matter percentage while negative direct effect with positive significant correlation with number of tillers per plant. These traits also had a significant regression with dry matter yield that explained 16.2, 15.8,
and 87.2 % respectively of the variation. Variability revealed that two traits viz., tillers number and
leaf length showed high coefficient of variation. Using metroglyph plot, accessions were classified into seven clusters. Accessions RLSB 6-17, RLSB 5-24, RLSB 2-11, RLSB 10-28 and RLSB 7-19 were identified as highly diverse accessions that can be used for further improvement in sewan grass for harsh arid and semi-arid environmental conditions. Principal component analysis illustrated that leaf length, days to maturity, leaf width, spike length and plant height traits had the highest communality and consequently high relative contribution in forage yield.
Key words: Desert grassland, diversity, sewan grass, selection, forage