COMBINING ABILITY ANALYSIS IN PEARL MILLET (PENNISETUM GLAUCUM L. R. BR.)

A 10 x 10 half diallel excluding reciprocals was evaluated to study the combing ability and gene action involved in respect of yield and its attributers in pearl millet. Analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among mean squares due to general and specific combining ability for all characters studied. The estimates of general combining ability (GCA) effects indicated that the parents D-23, SB-220 and J-2467 emerged as good general combiners for grain yield and its components. Out of 45 crosses combinations only five combinations such as J-2467 x J-2474, J -2454 x J-108, SB -220 x D-23, J- 2475 x D-23 and J -2340 x D -23 showed significant and positive specific combining ability (SCA) effects for grain yield and other yield attributing characters.