Vol. 10, Issue 5 (2021)

Author(s):
KD Bhoite, SR Pardeshi, SD Patil, HM Patil, KM Sonawane and DV Kusalkar

Abstract:
The present investigation was carried out at Zonal Agriculture Research Station, Igatpuri at ZARS, Igatpuri during rabi-2020. This experiment comprises 30 genotypes including two checks. The analysis of variance has manifested significant variation among the studied genotypes for all the traits. The multivariate analysis carried out using Mahalanobis D²-statistics, indicated wider genetic diversity in the genotypes of niger. Total six clusters have formed of which, cluster IV was largest with eight genotypes. Seven genotypes formed in cluster I and II each, while cluster V and VI were monogenotypic. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster V and VI (D=13.64) followed by cluster III and VI (D=11.91), cluster I and VI (D= 11.03), cluster II and V (D=11.03). Maximum intra cluster distance observed within cluster III (D=6.03) while lowest intra cluster distance was observed within cluster I (D=4.33. The variance for cluster means were high for number of seeds per capitulla (31.49 per cent) followed by diameter of capitulla (19.31 per cent), seed yield per plant (19.08 per cent), days to maturity (10.34 per cent) and days to 50% flowering (9.20 per cent) while, number of capitula per plant (4.37 per cent), number of branches per plant (3.68 per cent) and plant height (2.53 per cent) contributed least to the divergence. Based on inter-cluster distances, cluster mean and per se performance the genotypes viz; GP-20.14, GP-20-17, GP-20-23, GP-20-24 and GP-20-27 were identified as potential parent for future endeavors for improvement of Niger.