Genetic variability studies in finger millet under terminal moisture stress

Abstract

Finger millet is an important staple food crop of Karnataka. Terminal Drought is one of the major constrain under current climate change scenario which affects productivity of Ragi. Evaluation of genotypes based on variability parameters enables to identify drought tolerant lines. Maximum phenotypic and genotypic coefficient variation was found in number of productive tillers, finger length, number of roots under terminal moisture stress environment and dry matter, seed yield per plant in both moisture stress free and terminal moisture stress environments. Whereas, the character like plant height, 1000 seed weight, exhibited minimum phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation in both environments. The use of heritability values coupled with genetic advance would be more reliable than heritability alone.