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Abstract
Seventeen genotypes of Guinea grass were studied for their per se performance, genetic parameters like GCV, PCV, h2 and GA, association among characters and stability analysis during kharif 2000. The data were gathered for ten yield related traits and two quality traits.
The genotypes PGG 653, PGG668, PGG 578 and JHGG 96- 5 recorded high mean values for green fodder yield per plant and crude protein content and less crude fibre content when compared to the local check COL1.The genotypes PGG 668, JHGG 99-1-p, CO-1 and PGG 618 recorded higher mean values for plot yield.
The characters such as stem thickness, green fodder yield per plant, leaf stem ratio and 50 per cent flowering showed relatively high GCV and high heritability coupled with high genetic advance.
The green fodder yield per plant showed a strong positive correlation with days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height and leaf stem ratio both at phenotypic and genotypic levels. A negative correlation was observed between crude fibre content and number of tillers, number of leaves, stem thickness and crude protein content. There was a significant environmental correlation between plant height and number of tillers.
Path analysis revealed that days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height, stem thickness, number of tillers , number of leaves. Leaf stem ratio and leaf breadth exerted direct influence on green fodder yield per plant in positive direction. The other characters viz., crude protein content, leaf length and crude fibre content exerted negative direct effects on green fodder yield per plant.
The environmental indices for the twelve characters indicated that E1 had a high negative effect on green fodder yield per plant and positive in other environments (E2, E3, E4). In all the four environments the highest index recorded was for green fodder yield per plant.
The genotype HGP 2-m- 3 recorded high stability for six characters viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, number of leaves, leaf breadth, leaf stem ratio, plot yield and crude protein content. The genotype PGG 518 recorded the highest plot yield but has low stability. PGG101 had fairly high plot field and high b1 value indicating that it is highly adaptive. Thus the three genotypes i.e., PGG 101, HGP 2-m-3 and PGG 578 may be considered as the best genotypes with high yield and stability of performance.
