Variability and characters inter-relationships in accessions of sewan grass

Abstract

The present investigation was conducted to estimate morphological variation for green fodder yield and related traits in sewan grass accessions. The observations were recorded for eleven characters during Kharif 2017 at ARS, SKRAU, Bikaner. Among 273 accessions, variability and character association were analyzed for 30 best accessions based on green fodder yield. Phenotypic coefficient of variation was observed high for the number of tillers per plant (67.68%) followed by dry matter yield per plant (29.84%), leaf: stem ratio (27.23%) and green fodder yield per plant (24.12%) that indicated relative magnitudes of the variation are existing among the accessions. Green fodder yield per plant showed positive and significant correlation with spike length, number of tillers per plant and dry matter yield per plant. Dry matter yield per plant also showed positive and significant correlation with the number of tillers per plant, green fodder yield per plant and dry matter percentage at phenotypic level, revealing possibility of simultaneous improvement of these characters along with green fodder yield per plant and dry matter yield per plant. Superior accessions for green fodder yield per plant and dry matter yield per plant were RLSB 1-41, RLSB 1-27, RLSB 4-37, RLSB 10-1 and RLSB 11-50 on the basis of their mean values for the identified characters.