Department of Botany, College of Agriculture, Bhubaneswar
Fifty-four early flowering lines selected from the genetic stock and two standard varieties of finger millet were grown in a preliminary replicated trial and studied with respect to yield and seven other characters which direct1y or indirectly bear upon yielding ability. The coefficients of total phenotypic correlation between the characters studied and their heritabilities in broad sense were worked out from the results of the variance and covariance analyses and are reported in this paper.
A good amount of genetic variability with respect to the different characters was observed to exist between Iincs. Appreciablc differences in heritabilities of the characters studied were revealed. Heritabilities of heading date, plant height and seed-size were found to be high, those of finger length and yield moderate while number of tillers, number of fingers and density of grains showed low heritability.
Of the yield components, number of fingers and finger length were found to be moderately positively correlated with yield. Number of tillers, density of grains and seed-size arc rather loosely associated with yield while heading date and plant height showed good association with it. On the other hand, some of the yield components were found to be negatively correlated with other components. The results suggested that no single component trait could be effectively used as a guiding index for making selection for yield at early stages of a breeding programme. Multiple criteria selection for yield through simultaneous improvement in the component traits might prove more fruitful.
