Evaluation of finger millet (Elusinecoracana L.) genotypes for growth, yield and yield attributes in Vindhya region of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

The field experiment entitled “Evaluation of finger millet (Elusinecoracana) genotypes for growth, yield and yield attributes in Vindhya region in Uttar Pradesh” was conducted during Kharif, 2023 at field experimentation center, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, SHUATS, Prayagraj, (U.P). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with eleven genotypes which were replicated thrice. The genotypes are as follows, IE-179, IE-180, IE-181, IE-187, IE-191, IE-197, IE-198, IE-199, IE-200, IE-203, FIN- 7669 respectively. This study aimed to estimate the genetic parameters of seventeen yield-attributing traits in eleven Finger millet genotypes to identify superior yield attributes in Finger millet the experiment results revealed that moderate estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic advance as a percent was observed in harvest index (24.42, 47.02%), economical yield per plant (21.93, 45.75%) and highest heritability coupled with moderate genetic advance as a percent was observed in days to 50% flowering (13.80, 76.59. High heritability coupled with moderate genetic advance as percent mean was observed for number of ears per plant (18.06, 62.64%), number of productive tillers (10.38, 51.12%), test weight (12.77, 52.34%). This implies that this trait is governed by both additive and non-additive gene action. This showed there is a possibility of direct selection for this character. From the data recorded length of inflorescence in IE-191, length of longest raceme in IE-199, number of fingers per ear in IE-179, main ear head length in IE-198, number of ears per plant in IE-203 genotypes recorded higher yield attributing traits and these genotypes can be used to produce better yielding hybrids. As in the objectives listed the field emergence @ 10 DAS in IE-197, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity in FIN-7669, plant height in IE-191, finger length in FIN 7669, number of productive tillers in IE-200 recorded higher growth characteristics and as per hierarchy these genotypes can be used as parental genotypes.