Genetic Diversity Studies Using D2 Statistics in Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) Genotypes for Agro-Morphological and Biochemical Traits

The present experiment was undertaken in a set of fifty five diverse genotypes of finger millet to extract information on genetic variability, genetic diversity, correlation coefficient, path coefficient and stability analysis based on morphological and quality characters. The research was carried out at four different locations viz., Waghai, Vanarasi, Navsari and Dediyapada during kharif, 2023 in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The D2 analysis indicated wider genetic diversity among fifty five genotypes of finger millet which were grouped in five different clusters by Tocher's method. The results indicated that a maximum number of diverse genotypes (41 genotypes) were appeared in cluster I followed by cluster II (11 genotypes), whereas cluster III, IV and V were mono-genotypic, consisted of single genotype. These genotypes are likely to have extreme form of expression for particular character. Based upon inter-cluster distances, it is advisable to attempt crossing between genotypes belonging to cluster III and V, to derive transgressive segregants for trait of interest to improve in Finger millet. It was observed that grain yield per plant, fingers per panicle, calcium content, ear head length, fodder yield per plant, iron content, days to 50% flowering, 1000 grain weight, finger width, protein content, plant height, ear head weight, productive tillers per plant contributed much towards total genetic divergence. On the basis of cluster means for different characters, it could be concluded that high yielding genotypes coupled with other important physiological traits could be selected as parents for hybridization programme.