Collection and characterisation of sorghum landraces from North Karnataka

Abstract

A total of 140 landraces were collected from northern districts of Karnataka, characterised and evaluated during rabi 2016 and 2017 along with seven check varieties in an augmented design. Maximum number of collections were made from Vijayapur (52) followed by Kalaburgi district (38). Considerable variability was present among the landraces for six qualitative and fourteen quantitative characters studied. Among the landraces, majority of the landraces have semi loose erect primary branches (104), yellow glume colour (38), 50 per cent grain coverage by glume (108), yellow grain colour (93), circular grain shape (125), easy to thresh (138) and presence of awns (137) at maturity. Among the quantitative characters, peduncle length, panicle weight and grain weight per plant and grain yield showed more variation during rabi 2016 and 2017. Grain yield was positively correlated with SCMR, number of green leaves per plant, panicle width, panicle weight and grain weight per plant and 100 grain weight and negatively correlated with peduncle length during both the seasons.