Evaluation of sorghum germplasm for genetic diversity using D2 statistics

The D2 statistics was applied to assess the diversity among 61 genotypes of sorghum. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters under study. The genotypes were grouped into 15 clusters, where cluster I comprised maximum of 47 genotypes, while the rest of the clusters had one genotype each. Inter-cluster distance was maximum between the clusters XV and XIV followed by XV and IX which indicated that genotypes included in these clusters may give heterotic response and thus better segregants. Regarding genetic divergence of the genotypes, relative water content contributed major share followed by grain weight, panicle weight, days to 50% flowering, plant height and fodder weight.