Agricultural Science Digest
Year : 2006, Volume : 26, Issue : 3
First page : ( 166) Last page : ( 169)
Print ISSN : 0253-150X.

Variability and correlation studies in quantitative traits of finger millet (Eleusine coracana gaertn)

John K.

Regional Agricultural Research Station, Tirupati-517 502, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Abstract

Varietal improvement for grain yield is mainly dependent upon the extent of genetic variability present in the population. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed for number of productive tillers per plant, number of fingers per ear and total dry matter production. Moderate (53.19% for main ear length) to high (95.55% for harvest index) estimates of heritability (broad sense) was obtained for almost all the characters studied. Number of productive tillers per plant, number of fingers per ear, test weight, total dry matter production and harvest index possessed high heritability coupled with high estimates of genetic advance, it can be suggested that additive gene effects for these characters are present, hence selection at phenotypic level for these traits would be more effective. High heritability estimates accompanied by low genetic advance as observed for days to 50% flowering may due to non-fixable gene effects. Correlation analysis revealed that total dry matter production showed a positive and highly significant association with test weight (0.458) grain yield showed a positive and highly significantly correlated with test weight (0.458), total dry matter production (0.585) and harvest index (0.597), hence grain yield could be improved through these characters. Significant positive regression coefficient was observed between grain yield and dry matter production (r²= 0.3747).

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