Abstract

                                Five generation mean analysis was undertaken in finger millet (Eleusine coracuna Gaertn.) involving six parents, Co 7. Co 9, Co 13, Indaf 9, MS 2655 and MS 2863 and F1, F2 and F3 generations of four crosses Co9 x Co13, Co9 x Indaf 9, Co9 x Co7 and MS 2863 x MS 2655 for eight quantitative characters. The study revealed the importance of both additive and non-additive types of gene action for all the characters studied. Predominance of additive gene action was noted for days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height and 100 grain weight while non-additive gene action played a major role in the inheritance of the other five characters, viz., number of productive tillers per plant, number of fingers per ear, finger length, ear weight per plant and grain yield per plant. Breeding methods such as biparental mating, recurrent selection and reciprocal recurrent selection techniques were suggested for the improvement of the characters studied.

Key words : Finger millet, generation mean, gene action