Character Association Studies for Yield Attributing Traits Across Different Seasons in Pearl Millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br]

The purpose of the present investigation was to assess the association of different characters among 36 advanced hybrids, 12 B lines and 3 R lines with grain yield per plot pooled across the seasons Kharif and summer and to demonstrate the direct and indirect effects of various characters on grain yield. The results on correlation in the present study revealed that, in general, the genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than their corresponding phenotypic correlations. Grain yield had genotypically significant positive correlation with most of the characters under study viz. plant height (0.955), effective tillers per plant (0.848), flag leaf length (0.992), flag leaf width (0.985), leaf length (0.987), leaf width (0.971), panicle length (0.234), panicle width (0.153), maximum PS II efficiency (0.215), fresh biomass (0.994), dry biomass (0.993), harvest index (0.997), 1000 seed weight (0.990) across the two seasons indicating any increase in these traits will increase the yield. The genotypic path analysis revealed high positive direct effect on grain yield per plot with respect to plant height, panicle width, actual PS II efficiency, fresh biomass, dry biomass and 1000 seed weight indicating importance of these characters, which can be strategically used to improve the yield of pearl millet.