Characterization of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) moench] germplasm for agro-morphological traits

The experiment on characterization of 2500 accessions of sorghum germplasm including indigenous and exotic collections representing 42 countries was conducted at Indian Council of Agriculture Research-Indian Institute of Millets Research (ICAR-IIMR), Hyderabad, India. The experiment was laid in Augment Block Design with two checks. These accessions were characterized for yield and yield attributing traits. The analysis of descriptive statistics showed that wide range of variability for all quantitative traits. There was significant positive association between yield and yield attributing traits except for ear head length which had negative significant association with grain yield and 100-seed weight. Sorghum accessions were grouped into 10 clusters as per Ward's method and found that there was 13.65% and 86.35% of variability was found within and between clusters. This variability in the germplasm can be utilized for further sorghum improvement programme. The potential germplasm identified for different agro-morphological traits may be used to develop parents and varieties in sorghum improvement programmes.