Department of Agricultural Botany, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
1Present address: Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Jhansi (U. P.) India-284 003.
2Present address: Agricultural Research Station, Sriganganagar, Rajasthan, India-335 001.
*Part of the thesis submitted by the first author in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Ph. D. degree of the University of Udaipur.
Line X tester analysis involving 30 male parents, crossed to 5 male sterile lines of pearl millet grown at two locations, was carried out. The result of this study suggested that, both general and specific combining ability are important in the expression of yield and its components. However, the magnitude of non-additive component was higher than that of the additive component for all the characters studied. It is suggested that a breeding methodology that can exploit both additive and non-additive genetic effects would be the most effective in attaining maximum improvement in yield and its component characters in pearl millet.
