Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

Thirty-two pearl millet restorer lines were studied to determine the interrelationship between yield and yield components and other quantitative traits, including plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity, number of effective tillers, ear head length, ear head girth, ear head weight, dry fodder yield per plant and grain yield per plant. The path analysis and phenotypic and genotypic correlation coefficients were worked out. The results from present study revealed significant and positive association of grain yield per plant with number of effective tiller per plant (rg=0.345, r_p=0.200) earhead girth (rg=0.503, r_p=0.352), earhead weight (rg=0.479, r_p=0.481) and dry fodder yield per plant (rg=0.747, r_p=0.601). Among them, earhead girth was also found to be positive significantly associated with earhead weight (rg=0.380, r_p=0.295) and dry fodder yield per plant (rg=0.468, r_p=0.431). Hence, selection criteria for these traits should be considered important for the improvement in grain yield per plant. While, negative and significant association of grain yield per plant with days to flowering (rg= -0.610, r_p= -0.218) and days to maturity (rg= -0.356, r_p= -0.313) was observed which are inversely proportional to grain yield per plant indicating that delayed flowering and maturity in pearl millet leads to reduction in grain yield per plant. Path analysis indicated Positive and highest direct effect for dry fodder yield per plant while, low and positive indirect effects of number of effective tiller, earhead girth and earhead weight through dry fodder yield per plant was observed which denoted significant contribution of the traits on grain yield per plant. Thus, these characters can be used as selection criteria for yield improvement of pearl millet.