Variability among Fodder Yield and Quality in Sudangrass Hybrids

Six Sorghum x Sudangrass hybrids and 9 elite lines will be evaluated for their comparative performance in field for green fodder yield and its quality attributes following randomized complete block design with three replications, for the estimation of variability and association among fodder yield and quality attributes at genetic level. Maximum genetic variability was present in green fodder yield (Kg) followed by number of leaves per plant, plant height (cm), dry matter percentage, leaf area (cm2), sugar contents, number of tillers per plant and leaf to stem ratio. The highest heritability (0.82) was estimated for plant height followed by dry matter percentage (0.59), green fodder yield (0.53), leaf area (0.46), leaf to stem ratio (0.43), number of leaves per plant (0.42), sugar contents (0.40) and number of tillers per plant (0.30) (Table-2). Genotypic correlations of different traits under study were in general higher than their respective phenotypic ones indicating thereby an association among the traits under study due to genetic factors rather than environmental effects in all possible combinations. The genotypic correlation coefficient revealed that plant height, number of leaves per plant, number of tillers per plant, leaf area, leaf to stem ratio and sugar contents had positive and significant genotypic correlation with green fodder yield in sorghum x sudangrass hybrids., whereas dry matter percentage had negative significant correlation with green fodder yield in sorghum x sudangrass hybrids. Genotypes AKS 5 X Hegeri and CS 11 X SPV 462 had the highest plant height, Honey Pasture and SPL 13 X JS 100 had highest number of leaves and CS 11 X SPV 462 and AKS 5 X Hegeri had the largest leaves. These lines could be included in hybridization programme to conserve the genes for plant height, leaf area and number of leaves per plant. There is a strong hope of finding better performing sorghum x sudangrass hybrids genotypes with contribution of these said characters.

Keywords: Genetic variability and association, Sorghum x Sudangrass hybrid, Genotype, Phenotype, TDN, DP, Fodder.