STUDIES OF VARIABILITY AND YIELD PERFORMANCE IN SOME ACCESSIONS OF SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench)

Abstract

Field trial was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, to evaluate some accessions of sorghum. Nineteen (19) sorghum accessions were characterized and yield determined with its component traits. A randomized complete block design with three replicate was used for the experiment. Data were collected on plant height, number of leaves/plants, leaf length, leaf width, grain weight and 1000 seed weight. Data on the various morph-agronomical traits were subjected to individual and combined analysis of variance (ANOVA). Highly significant differences among accessions were found for all characters. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and high phenotypic and genotypic variability was observed between the nineteen sorghum accessions. The highest value of heritability was observed in grain weight (99 %), and the highest yielding accession was AKV11 (Kaura) with grain weight of 614g and 514.33g for the two consecutive years, therefore, AKV11, AKV9 and AKV14 were recommended for Sorghum improvement programme and for farmers in Southern guinea zones of Nigeria Accessions, sorghum, variation, correlation, heritability