Genetic diversity among the land races of sorghum collected in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Sixty three local land races of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) collected from different parts of Tamil Nadu were evaluated for their genetic diversity based on nine characters. The genotypes were grouped into 14 clusters indicating high genetic divergence among them. The study indicated no definite relationship between geographic and genetic diversity and geographic diversity cannot be used as an index of genetic diversity. Based on the inter cluster distance and cluster mean for various characters it could be seen that the clusters VI, X, XII were the most divergent from the other clusters. The genotypes from these parents possibly be utilized for hybridization programme. Days to flowering, plant height, ear head length and grain weight contributed highly towards the genetic divergence among the genotypes studied.