Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding (Mar 2010)
Morphological Characterization and Evaluation of Little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth. ex. Roem. and Schultz.) Germplasm
Abstract
Evaluation of hundred and nine little millet germplasm accessions was done during rabi, 2008-2009 atDepartment of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,Coimbatore to study descriptive statistics, genetic variability, correlation and path analysis of yield and itscomponents. High estimates of variability together with high heritability and high genetic advance wereobserved for grain yield, number of productive tillers per plant, total number of tillers per plant, flag leaf widthand flag leaf sheath length indicated additive gene effects for these characters. Phenotypic selection based onthese characters may be effective for yield improvement. Highly significant positive correlations of most of thecomponent characters with grain yield and strong inter correlation among themselves indicated possibility ofsimultaneous improvement of these characters by selection. High positive direct effect and indirect effects ofother characters through days to 50 per cent flowering indicated this character should be given importance inselection.
