ASSESSMENT OF LITTLE MILLET (PANICUM SUMATRENSE L.) GERMPLASMS FOR MORPHOPHYSIOLOGICAL AND DUS CHARACTERS

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2023-24 under irrigated conditions at Rahuri (Ahmednagar) region to study the "Assessment of little millet (Panicum sumatrense L.) germplasms for morphophysiological and DUS characters." with objectives to study the morpho-physiological, growth and nutritional traits differences and characterization as per DUS guidelines of little millet germplasms.The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with two replications.There were 17 Little millet germplasms studied for morpho-physiological, growth and nutritional traits, characterization as per DUS guidelines for quantitative and qualitative characters and effect of environment viz., IGPLM-19-05, IGPLM-19-26, IGPLM-19-10, IGPLM-19-24, IGPLM-19-30, IGPLM-19-36, IGPLM-19-28, IGPLM-19-01, IGPLM-19-23, IGPLM-19-14, IGPLM-19-15, IGPLM-19-07, IGPLM-19-12, IGPLM-19-08, IGPLM-19-21, IGPLM-19-34, IGPLM-19-17 along with one check variety Phule Ekadashi.The set of germplasms under study showed wide range of variability for all the qualitative and quantitative traits studied.Based on the one season of research in consideration with objectives of present research among different germplasms studied IGPLM-19-08, IGPLM-19-01, IGPLM-19-17 and IGPLM-19-34 recorded superior results with respect to growth, yield and yield contributing characters alongside the check variety Phule Ekadashi.