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Browntop millet (Brachiaria ramose (L.) Stapf.), is an important small millet crop. It can thrive in variety of climates, uses limited amount of water for growth and development and has high minerals and fibre. As the genetic diversity in any crop species is crucial for crop improvement, present study was aimed at evaluating the diversity present in the germplasm accessions by measuring 13 morphological traits across 27 accessions of browntop millet. The data revealed significant variations between the accessions for each of the traits that were examined. GCV and PCV were observed to be more for the trait panicle width and it was found less in case of days to maturity. The difference in GCV and PCV was very narrow for panicle width indicating least influence of surrounding environment which was further supported by high value of broad sense heritability. While grain yield per plant recorded highest heritability with GAM. Grain yield per plant showed significant positive correlation with plant height, number of panicles per plant, panicle length, peduncle length, flag leaf width and flag leaf length. Principal component analysis revealed 88.73 per cent of total variation was from grain yield per plant, total panicle weight per plant, panicle width and flag leaf length comprising the accessions viz., namely IC617956, IC613546, VBT 002, TNBr 016 and IIMR BTL. The study identified best accessions for different traits based on correlation and multivariate analysis that could be of further use in the browntop millet breeding programmes. |
