PHENOTYPIC DIVERSITY IN SORGHUM LANDRACES FROM KENYA

Characterisation of the available Kenyan sorghum genetic diversity is important for understanding the dynamics of the genetic resources and for improving and sustaining sorghum productivity. The aim of this study was to assess the extent and structure of diversity in sorghum landraces from Kenya. Phenotypic data were used to assess diversity in 148 sorghum accessions collected from Western, Turkana, Coast and Eastern regions of Kenya. The accessions were phenotyped using qualitative and quantitative morphological characters. Most of the accessions were high yielding as revealed by the means of panicle branches (43), panicle length (21cm), and grain weight (1.5 g). Majority of the sorghums were late maturing and tall as shown by the mean number of days to 50% flowering (88 days), number of leaves and nodes. Turkana and coast sorghums had similarities in maturity, height and panicle length. The number of panicle branches had the highest Broad-sense heritability (0.957). Majority of the sorghums had dull green midrib (49.55%), no basal tillers (83%), had waxy bloom (39.64%) and produced prop roots (87%). Loose and semi-loose erect panicles dominated (69%) while 83% of the accessions had slightly exerted peduncles. The two Eigen values in PCA explained 67% of the total variance. Phenotypic cluster analysis gave two major groups subdivided into four sub clusters.