Abstract

Wide genetic diversity among the fifty genotypes of ragi was revealed by D analysis. wherein the fifty genotypes grouped themselves into as many as twelve clusters. The clustering pattern indicated that there was no parallelism between geographical distribution and genetic diversity. The sixteen genotypes of Tamil Nadu were found scattered in dif- ferent clusters with varying degrees of inter-cluster distances suggesting the availability of wide genetic diversity even within the same ecogeographical region. Fodder yield and leaf/stem ratio contributed the maximum towards the total genetic diversity among the characters taken for the study.

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