Variation and Association among Fodder Yield and other Traits in Germplasm of Forage Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench)

An evaluation of 105 forage sorghum germplasm, for days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf breadth, stem girth, leaf stem ratio and green and dry fodder yield/plant in Augmented Block Design during 2008–09 and 2009–10, revealed highly significant difference amongst the accessions. The phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficients for all the characters, denoting environmental factors influenced their expression. Broad sense heritability was moderate (61.21% for number of leaves/plant) to high (92.49 for stem girth) confirming that genotypic variance has contributed substantially to the total variance. The association and path coefficient analysis revealed that stem girth, number of leaves/plant, plant height, leaf length and leaf breadth were the important characters and may be selected to increase the fodder yield. Based on the results of the means of the two years considering together the various traits, the accession IS-3665 and EJ-16 was found to be superior for days to 50% flowering, RAJ-21 for plant height and leaf characters, IS-2887 and IS-3266 for green fodder yield. Therefore, these accessions may be utilized in further breeding programme for developing superior varieties.