Genetic Analysis of Yield and Some Quality Components in Forage Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor L. Moench)

Abstract

The present investigation entitled "Genetic analysis of yield and some quality components. in forage sorghum (Sorghum bico/or L. Moench)" was undertaken to assess the information on genetic parameters for green fodder yield and quality components. The experimental material was comprised of ten diverse parents and their 45 F1 ·s excluding reciprocals of a diallel cross. All the genotypes were evaluated in a complete randomized block design with three replications at Crop Research Center of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut, during kharif 2008 and 2009. The observations were recorded on seventeen traits viz days to 50% flowering, plant height, stem girth, internode length, nodes per plant, number of leaves per plant, leaf breadth, leaf length, leaf stem ratio, green fodder yield, dry fodder yield, total soluble solid, . crude protein content, total ash content, ether extract, crude fibre and nitrogen free extract content. The data recorded were subjected to various statistical analyses. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes viz., parents and their F1s for all the traits justifying the presence of adequate variability with regard to the important traits under study. The variance component analysis indicated that both additive and dominance types of gene actions were involved in almost all the traits with higher magnitude of dominance component than additive component for all the character. Highly significant variances were noticed for both general and specific combining ability for all the characters. However, among the parents, GFS-4, SPV-815, UP Chari-2 and CSV-15 were good general combiner for green fodder yield, quality and yield components. Ten crosses viz; Pant Chari-5 x ICSV-700, HC-308 x Varsha, SPV- 815 x RSSV-9, SPV-815 x HC-308, HC-171 x CSV-15, Pant Chari-5 x CSV-15, SPV-815 x ICSV-700, UP Chari-2 x HC-171, RSSV-9 x GFS-4, Pant Chari-5 x GFS-4, which displayed significant and desirable sea effects for green fodder yield, involved atleast one parent exhibiting significant gca effects and could be placed in high x low category. High significant heterosis was recorded in SPV- 815 x RSSV-9, HC-308 X Varsha, SPV-815 x HC-308, UP Chari-2 x SPV-815 and UP Chari-2 x RSSV-9 for green fodder yield q/ha as well as other yield and quality contributing traits. The heritability estimates were high for plant height, · leaf breadth, internode length, leaf length, total soluble solids, green fodder yield, dry fodder yield and ether extract content. Expected genetic advance was observed to be high for leaf breadth, plant height, internode length, total soluble solids, leaf stem ratio, green fodder yield and dry fodder yield. Highly significant and positive association of green fodder yield was recorded with plant height, number of leaves per plant, internode length and nodes per plant. Path coefficient analysis for green fodder yield involving 16 independent variables revealed that nitrogen free extract content displayed high order of direct effect on green fodder yield followed by dry fodder yield , total ash content , crude protein content , crude fibre content, plant height, number of leaves per plant and total soluble solid. For improvement in yield, emphasis may be given to the characters like plant height, number of leaves per plant, nodes per plant, stem girth, dry fodder yield, and leaf breadth while selecting the genotypes. And selection pressure may be more towards the traits like total soluble solid per cent, crude protein content, ether extract, total ash, nitrogen free extract and crude' fibre content (low) for improvement in forage quality.