Characterization of Drought Tolerant Grain Amaranth ( Amaranthus hypocondriacus L.) Germplasm for Alfisol of Jharkhand

Grain amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.) is a winter crop in India. Productivity improvement through exploitation of variability in 99 accessions was carried out at Birsa Agricultural University, Jharkhand (23o17' N latitude and 85o19' E longitude, 625m altitude) in augmented incomplete block design with three checks (BGA 2, GA 2 and Suvarna) during Rabi 2012-2013 and 2013-14. The data on 11 quantitative and 9 qualitative characters were recorded. A wide range of variability was observed for all the morphological characters. High variability was observed with respect to seed yield (kg/ha), g/10ml seed weight, days to 80% maturity, inflorescence length (cm), plant height (cm), number of branches/plant, days to 50% flowering, petiole length (cm), leaf width (cm), leaf length (cm) and seed yield/plant. The accession viz ., IC94661, SKGPA-106, IC35713 and IC35735 for more than 28 g seed yield/plant; SKGPA-79, SKGPA-101, SKGPA-69, IC-35665, IC-35642 and SKGPA-100 for days to maturity and IC-35642, IC-21803-A, IC-120670 and IC-95244 for g/10ml seed weight with superior desirable traits can be utilized in different breeding programmes.

In India grain amaranth (Amaranthus hypocondriacus L.) is a potential crop. The diversity of this crop is found to be maximum (De candolle, 1884;Vavilov, 1926 andZhukovsky, 1950). The productivity of grain amaranth requires genetic improvement through exploitation of germplasm. The present paper deals with characterization, preliminary evaluation and identification of promising accessions of grain amaranth with desirable traits.

Materials and Methods
The preliminary characterization and evaluation of 99 accessions was carried out during rabi 2012-13 and 2013-14 at the Research farm of Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi, which is situated at 23 o 17' north latitude and 85 o 19' east longitude with an altitude of about 625 m above MSL. The soil is mostly red lateritic with p H value ranging from 4.5 to 6.3, poor in fertility and low in water retentive capacity. The normal annual precipitation is around 1088 mm, mostly confined to four monsoon months (June to September). The germplasm accessions were raised in an augmented incomplete block design with 3 checks (BGA 2, GA 2 and Suvarna) in each block. The accessions were grown in 4m row with spacing of 45 x 15 cm. The trial was unprotected for diseases. The data on 11 quantitative leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), petiole length (cm), days to 50% flowering, number of branches/plant, plant height *Corresponding author email : jaylalmahto@ymail.com (cm), inflorescence length (cm), days to 80% maturity, seed yield/plant, g/10ml seed weight and seed yield (kg/ha) and 9 qualitative characters viz., early plant vigour, plant growth habit, leaf colour, inflorescence colour, inflorescence compactness, stem colour, stem surface, inflorescence shape and inflorescence spininess were recorded using minimal descriptors developed by Mahajan et al., (2000). All the quantitative data were analyzed statistically for mean and range. The qualitative characters have been reported as such and their frequencies alone have been calculated.

Results and Discussion
Ninety nine accessions of grain amaranth germplasm were characterized for 11 quantitative and 9 qualitative characters. Wide range of variability was recorded in both quantitative and qualitative traits. The range of variability and frequency observed for qualitative traits are presented in Table 1. The early plant vigour showed poor in 40 accessions, good in 30 accessions and very good in 29 accessions. Plant growth habit was expressed as erect in 67 accessions, spreading in 27 accessions and drooping in 5 accessions. The leaf colour expressed its yellow in 10 accessions, yellowish orange in 9 accessions, yellowish green in 23 accessions, yellowish orange in 9 accessions, green in 21 accessions, pinkish green in 25 accessions, pink in 2 accessions, redish green in 5 accessions, and red in 1 accession. The The quantitative characters also showed wide range of variation. The result such as descriptive statistical analysis is presented in Table 2. The characters of leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, days to 50% flowering, number of branches/plant, plant height, inflorescence length, days to 80% maturity, seed yield/plant, g/10ml seed weight and seed yield (kg/ha) were highly variable based on the variance. Leaf length ranged from 3-15 with mean value 8.7. Leaf width ranged from 2-7 having mean value 4.7. Petiole length ranged from 2-12 with mean value 5.6. Days to 50% flowering ranged from 57-93 with mean value 73.3. Number of branches/plant ranged from 1-8 with mean value 4.38. Plant height ranged from 14-98 with mean value 50.9. Inflorescence length ranged from 12.5-40 with mean value 23.7. Days to 80% maturity ranged from 126-170 with mean value 144. Seed weight per 10ml ranged from 6.7-10.5 with mean value 9.5, whereas seed yield/plant ranged from 9.5-34 g with mean value 21g and seed yield (kg/ ha) ranged from 1407-5037 with mean value 3107. It is reported in early studies that the earliness is due to additive action (Chowdhury et al., 2003 andRamanujam et al., 1974) in mungbean.
Grain amaranth accessions showing high test weight (>10.3 g) along with other yield attributing characters were presented in Table 4. The accessions IC21803-A and IC35642 showed test weight more than 10.5 g. Based on the screening for different quantitative and qualitative traits of 99 grain amaranth accessions showing promise for different characters were presented in Table 5.    IC-35638 (10.1), IC-35735 (10.1) for g/10ml seed weight and IC-94661, SKGPA-106, IC-35713, IC-35735 for Seed yield (kg/ha) were found to be promising.
These accessions with superior desirable qualities can be utilized in different breeding programmes for improvement of a particular character or to develop a new variety with multiple desirable traits for amaranth growing areas of Jharkhand or can be extended to other parts of India having similar climatic conditions. The future thrust may be germplasm collection from unexploited areas, utilization of superior accessions for improvement of specific trait, hybridization for promising recombination, incorporation of disease and pest resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses.