Indian Journal of Plant Genetic Resources

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) germplasm collection involving 4511 accessions at National Active Germplasm Collection Site (NAGS), Project Co-ordination Cell (Small millets), UAS, Bangalore were evaluated for different morpho-agronomic characters over the years. A core set of 551 accessions was formed using this evaluated data by cluster analysis and PCA scoring. Majority of the accessions have Indian origin. The core set formed was true representative of the entire collection and the procedure followed in its formation was appropriate as the statistical analysis indicated that core set did not differ significantly from entire collection. The total diversity present in the entire collection was completely captured in core set. Character association studies revealed that the associations among yield and yield contributing characters found in entire collection were also found in core set. The characters viz., plant height, culm thickness, number of leaves, flag leaf sheath width, flag leaf blade length and width, leaf blade width, days to 50 per cent flowering and days to maturity could be used as indirect selection for high seed yield.