Abstract

                                Seven male sterile lines were crossed with nine testers and the resultant sixty three hybrids were utilized for correlation and path analysis. Grain yield per plant was found to be positively and significantly correlated with plant height, number of productive tillers, earhead length and earhead girth at genotypic level. This indicated the importance of plant height, number of productive tillers, earhead length and earhead girth in influencing the grain yield in pearl millet. The characters, earhead length, 1000 grain weight and days to 50 per cent flowering exerted maximum direct effect on grain yield per plant indicating its importance in determining grain yield per plant, and also number of productive tillers and earhead girth exerted direct effect on grain yield per plant. Selection based on these characters may be helpful in planning efficient breeding programme.

Key words : Correlation, path analysis, yield contributing characters, pearl millet