Formerly International Journal of Basic and Applied Agricultural Research

Evaluation of finger millet germplasm for morpho-metric traits, seed quality parameters and against important endemic diseases in mid hills of Uttarakhand

LAXMI RAWAT, DEEPTI and SUMIT CHAUHAN
Pantnagar Journal of Research, Volume - 20, Issue - 3 ( September-December 2022)

Published: 2022-12-31

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Abstract


Finger millet is one of the most important small millet crops grown in large areas of the developing world especially in Africa and Asia. The aim of this study was to characterize 114 finger millet genotypes for their morpho-metric traits, seed quality parameters and against important endemic diseases affecting the yield in mid hills of Uttarakhand. One hundred and fourteen germplasm lines of finger millet including two checks viz., PRM-1, PRM-2 were planted in augmented design with 1.0 m row length. Observations were recorded for morpho-metric traits, disease incidence and seed quality parameters. The studied qualitative traits showed significant variation among tested germplasm. A wide variation was recorded in plant height among 114 finger millet germplasm that ranged from 58.41 cm to 134.74 cm. Days to maturity ranged from 126.16 days to 161.63 days across the germplasm. Seed yield of randomly selected five plants and 1000- seed weight exhibited appreciable variation in the experimental materials that ranged from 6.61 g to 97.83 g and 1.20 g to 3.20 g, respectively. Significant variation was recorded in seed quality traits also. Seed vigour index-I and II showed substantial variation with a range of 701.53 to 1530.57 and 0.47 to 8.24 respectively, and first count and standard germination percent of seed also showed noticeable variation with a range of 32.75 % to 61.50 % and 60.00 % to 96.00 %, respectively which might be due to genetic makeup of germplasm and prevailing environmental conditions of the experimental site. Out of 114 germplasm, two lines viz., IC-587952 and IC-476936 were identified as immune for all the screened endemic diseases. Thirty-two germplasm lines reported to be resistant and thirty-five germplasm lines showed moderate resistant to leaf blast disease while seventeen germplasm lines showed resistant to neck blast disease. From the present investigation, two germplasm viz., IC-587952 and IC-476936 were identified for higher seed yield along with early maturity as well as resistant to all the important endemic finger millet diseases. These two identified germplasm lines from the bulk are of immense value and may be used in further breeding programme.


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