GENETIC VARIABILITY AMONG SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) ACCESSIONS

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is an important staple food crops and provide bulk of raw materials for the livestock and many agro-allied industries in the world. There are collections of sorghum genotypes in some research institutes and most of these collections lack information on its morphology agronomic traits that could be used by researchers to improve sorghum production in Nigeria. However, breeding for high yield crops requires information on the nature and magnitude of variation in the available materials and the reationship of yield with other agronomic characters. Grain yield in sorghum is quantitative in nature and polygenically controlled, effective yield improvement and simultaneous improvement in yield components are imperative. Selection on the basis of grain yield character alone is usually not very effective and efficient. Genetic variability studies provide the basic information regarding the genetic properties of the population based on which the breeding methods are formulated for further crop improvement. For any progress in plant breeding, there is the need to study the genetic variability which cannot be easily quantified. Genetic improvement for quantitative traits depends on the nature and amount of variability present in any genetic stock and the extent to which the desirable traits are heritable. Knowledge of association between yield and its component traits and among the component parameters themselves can improve the efficiency of selection in plant breeding. Therefore, there is the need to characterize as much as possible sorghum genotypes available in Nigeria to identify traits for yield against future sorghum improvements for better food production and security.