Characterization of foxtail millet germplasm collections for yield contributing traits

The evaluation of 741 germplasm accessions including some varieties was done during rabi, 2008-2009 at Department of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to determine the genetic variability, correlation and path analyses of yield and its components. Data were recorded on various morphological traits such as days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height (cm), total number of tillers, number of productive tillers, panicle length (cm), days to maturity and grain yield per plant. Considerable diversity was observed for all accessions studied for all seven characters. Highest heritability, genotypic coefficient of variation and genetic advance as per cent of mean was recorded in grain yield per plant and the lowest was recorded in days to 50 per cent flowering. In the present study, all seven characters studied exhibited highly significant positive correlations with grain yield. The path analysis revealed that direct effect of days to 50 per cent flowering on grain yield was positive and negligible. Direct effect of number of productive tillers on grain yield was positive and high. Panicle length showed moderate positive direct effect on grain yield and negligible indirect effects through other traits studied. This study indicates that, great yield advantage could be achieved by using germplasm with more productive tillers, medium panicle length and medium duration. A cluster analysis of 741 accessions of foxtail millet was carried out using DARwin5 for yield and yield contributing traits. The population was grouped into nine clusters which shows wide range of variability in the population.