Abstract

In this study 100 sorghum accessions were evaluated at post flowering drought stress condition based on eight different morpho-physiological traits viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, leaf area index, SPAD chlorophyll, relative water content, plant height, proline, stay-green and grain yield. The analysis was subjected to mean performance and genetic diversity. Further, the diversity of 100 genotypes was studied based on D2 statistics and grouped into 11 different clusters and each cluster revealed considerable amount of genetic diversity. Inter cluster distance and cluster mean have also been studied for these genotypes. The genotypes IS23399, DRT1030, MS7735, KO5SS53, KO5SS186 and B35 under cluster III were identified as superior genotypes with high mean performance for all the eight traits for post-flowering drought tolerance and could be used in genetic improvement programmes.

Keywords: Sorghum, Genetic diversity, Drought tolerance and Genotypes