Exploiting Genetic Divergence in Italian Millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv) Elite Germplasm Lines: A Neglected and Underutilized Crop

摘要

One of the orphan crops Italian millet (Se-taria italica (L.) P. Beauv) known for its drought tolerance and as an indispensable crop in vast rain fed areas in semi-arid regions of India has been adopted for divergence analysis using Mahalanobis D2 statistic in 40 elite germplasm accessions in RBD worked out by 15 characters including morphological and biochemical traits contributing to divergence. The accessions were collected from diverge eco-geographi-cal regions of India and Abroad. Apparent diversity was noticed in 40 germplasm accessions which diverged into 5 clusters. Cluster 1 was the largest comprising of 32 genotypes followed by Chuster II with 5 genotypes, Cluster HI, IV, V were monogenotypic clusters. The maximum inter-cluster distance occurred be-tween cluster II and III. Among the characters studied protein content, carbohydrate content, days to 50% flowering, seed yield/plant contributed maximum towards divergence. The cluster III and highest cluster means for protein content, cluster IV for carbohydrate content, followed by cluster I requires less time for days to 50% bloom, highest means for seed yield/ plant and basal tillers respectively, cluster V had highest means for ear length.