Abstract
Improving yield and quality of fodder from forage sorghum is important, especially in the semi-arid tropics, where sorghum is a major source of fodder. The aim of this work was to understand the genetic basis of fodder yield and quality traits, and character associations, and to estimate combining ability of the parents. The experiment was carried out during 2 successive rainy seasons using 10 parents crossed in a half-diallel design. Significant differences among the genotypes for fodder yield, quality and cell wall constituents were observed. Important quality traits, crude protein and digestibility (IVOMD), were not correlated with fodder yield, indicating the potential to improve yield and quality simultaneously in forage sorghum. General combining ability and specific combining ability variances showed that, for almost all characters, both additive and non-additive gene effects were important, with a predominance of non-additive effects. Parental lines SEVS4, HC308 and UPMC503 were good general combiners for yield and quality. The brown midrib lines, EC582508 and EC582510, were good general combiners for low lignin and high IVOMD. Strategies for improving forage sorghum to suit animal and biofuel industries are discussed.Keywords: Digestibility, crude protein, ADL, diallel analysis, gene effects.DOI: 10.17138/TGFT(3)49-58
Highlights
Sorghum is a versatile species with potential for high biomass production
To improve fodder yield, the important traits to be addressed are Plant height (PH) and number of leaves per plant (NLP)
Multiple crosses involving the best combiners for different traits would result in the identification of superior F1 hybrids with favorable genes for most of the traits associated with fodder yield and quality
Summary
Sorghum is a versatile species with potential for high biomass production. It can be used as a source of human food, grain and forage for livestock and fuel in the arid and semi-arid tropics. In semi-arid situations, sorghum can be the major supplier of fodder, and its role becomes important during winter and summer months. The best option for increasing yield and quality of forage sorghum appears to be genetic improvement of both these characteristics in currently available cultivars through multi-dimensional programs. There is limited information available on feed quality of improved forage sorghums, which is important for commercialization of forage cultivars (Akabari and Parmar 2014)
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