1Agricultural Research Station, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Vizianagaram- 535001, Andhra Pradesh, India
2Regional Agricultural Research Station, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Chintapalle-531111, Andhra Pradesh, India
3ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad, 500030, Telangana, India
4ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi-110012, India
The experimental material comprised 148 diverse finger millet genotypes representing collections from all over India. All the genotypes were characterized for 19 grain yield and yield-related traits. They were evaluated to assess diversity among various genotypes at the Agricultural Research Station, Vizianagaram during kharif, 2019-20. Significant variations were observed for all the traits studied. Analysis of D2 statistics grouped them into 22 clusters. Cluster I was the largest group with the maximum number of genotypes (103), followed by cluster XI and XIV with 13 and 11 genotypes, respectively, while 18 were solitary clusters. The inter-cluster distance was highest between clusters XVII and XXII, followed by clusters XIII and XXII. Among the 19 quantitative traits studied, the most important trait contributing to the divergence was ear length, followed by days to 50% flowering and grain yield. Based on mean values and inter-cluster distances, IC0329452 × IC0474832, IC043734 × IC0474832, IC0475882 × IC0474832, IC0474832 × IC028353 and IC0474832 × IC0478862 crosses are proposed to attain multiple desirable characters in a single genotype.
Cluster, D2 statistic, Finger millet, Genetic diversity
