Genetic diversity in Rabi sorghum local types [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]

Sixty four Rahuri sorghum local germplasm (RSLG) collected from different geographic origin of Maharashtra state were classified into 19 clusters. There were six solitary clusters and in the remaining clusters the genotypes varied from 2-14. No parallelism was observed between geographic diversity and genetic diversity. Among the 13 quantitative characters studied, days to 50 per cent flowering contributed most to divergence, followed by plant height, 1000 grain weight, internode length and panicle length. Based on D 2 values and per se performance divergent pairs for hybridization programme and other genotypes in possible combinations are suggested to obtain superior types to secure yield improvement in rabi sorghum and remove yield constraints.