Genetic variability, trait association and diversity study in proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.)

Abstract

Proso millet, being the climate-resilient crop among cereals can be grown for food and fodder purposes. The current study was carried out to assess the variability, association, and divergence for 15 biometrical traits among 72 Proso millet accessions. The traits viz., number of basal tillers, flag leaf blade width, peduncle length, number of grains per panicle, dry fodder yield and single plant yield contributed maximum for the variability among the genotypes. High heritability with high genetic advance were recorded for the traits namely plant height, number of basal tillers, flag leaf blade length, flag leaf blade width, peduncle length, panicle length, number of grains per panicle, number of primary inflorescence branches, crude protein, dry fodder yield and single plant yield. Therefore selection based on these traits will be rewarding in future proso millet breeding programs. The traits such as plant height, number of basal tillers, flag leaf blade width, peduncle length, number of grains per panicle, and number of primary inflorescence branches were positively and significantly correlated with single plant yield, indicating the importance of these traits while improving the yield. High positive direct effect in path coefficient analysis for the traits plant height, flag leaf sheath length, panicle length, peduncle length, and thousand-grain weight indicated that yield improvement can be accomplished by direct selection based on these characters. Divergence by using Mehalanobis D2 analysis resulted in ten clusters. High inter cluster distance was observed between the clusters VII and X, VI and X, VI and X, and XII and I. Therefore, hybridization between the genotypes among the respective pair of clusters would be desirable to have high heterotic crosses.

Keywords

• proso millet
• germplasm
• variability
• association
• divergence