Characterization of Post-Rainy Season Grown Indigenous and Exotic Germplasm Lines of Sorghum for Morphological and Yield Traits

Abstract

Sorghum is a major staple crop and vital for the marginal farmers in Asian and African countries. Landraces or germplasm lines adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses are the prime source of adaptive traits in the crop breeding programs. In order to assess the genetic variability, 141 exotic germplasm lines and 36 popular varieties were evaluated for eight agro-morphological traits. Wide range of values were observed for grain yield (6.6–124.4 g/plant), seed index (1.5–7.1 g/100 seeds), panicle length (8–44 cm) and panicle width (7.25 cm). High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed for grain yield per plant. The values of broad sense heritability in the sorghum core population ranged from 0.75 to 0.99. Seed weight, days to flowering, panicle width and leaf area were significantly correlated with grain yield (P ≤ 0.01). Seed weight was positively correlated with panicle width (correlation coefficient 0.31), while negatively correlated with panicle length (correlation coefficient −0.15). Cluster analysis resolved all the genotypes into four major clusters. Among germplasm lines, TSG-313 had high seed weight of 7.05 g/100 seeds, while TSG-325 had highest grain yield of 124.4 g/plant as against control variety. Germplasm lines with high heritability scores would help us to utilise them in recombination breeding.