STUDIES ON GENETIC DIVERGENCE AND VARIABILITY IN PEARL MILLET [PENNISETUM GLAUCUM (L.) R. BR. EMEND STUNTZ]

STUDIES ON GENETIC DIVERGENCE AND VARIABILITY IN PEARL MILLET [PENNISETUM GLAUCUM (L.) R. BR. EMEND STUNTZ]

 RAKESH CHOUDHARY1, BABUL LAL JAT2  AND K. C. SHARMA3

Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics,

SKN College of Agriculture,

 Jobner -Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

(Email:babu_agrotech@yahoo.co.in)

(Received: 2 September 2013; Accepted: 4 October 2013)

 SUMMARY

Fifty genotypes of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum] along with three check namely Raj.-171, ICIP-3616 and ICTP-8203 were evaluated for grain yield and its component characters in Randomized Block Design with 3 replications during kharif 2007. The data were subjected to statistical analysis to obtain estimates of variability, heritability and genetic advance for different characters. Genetic divergence was carried out to judge the genetic diversity among the genotypes. The results indicated the variability showed significant for all the traits. Genetic divergence analysis revealed that genotypes could be grouped into 14 clusters. The genotypes of cluster IX had higher mean value for grain yield per plant, plant height, grain yield per plot and test weight, which can be used as parameters while selecting diverse parents for hybridization programme.

  Keywords: Genetic Divergence, Genetic variability and pearl millet.

Forage Res (118-123) Dec. 2013