Evaluation of proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) germplasm collections

Evaluation of three hundred and sixty four proso millet germplasm accessions were done during rabi, 2008-2009 at Department of Millets, Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to study genetic variability, diversity, correlation and path analysis of yield and its components. High variability observed for most of the characters indicated the scope of improvement of these characters by direct selection. Among the characters studied highest variability was observed for grain yield per plant and total number of productive tillers showed highest heritability. High genetic advance as per cent of mean was recorded for all characters except days to fifty per cent flowering and plant height. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for grain yield, number of productive tillers and total number of tillers indicated the scope of simple selection for improvement of these characters. All characters exhibited highly significant positive correlations with grain yield. Positive direct effect of plant height, number of productive tillers and hundred grain weight indicated direct selection for these characters would improve the grain yield in proso millet. This study indicated that, great yield advantage can be achieved by selecting accessions with more productive tillers, tall stature and medium duration. Seventeen distinct clusters were observed by cluster analysis. Principal component analysis indicated that panicle length, days to 50 per cent flowering, grain yield per plant, plant height, total number of tillers and hundred grain weight could be used as characters to distinguish the germplasm entries.