Abstract

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) is an important subsistence cereal in parts of Africa and South Asia. Finger millet is commonly called as “nutritious millet” as the grains are superior to many cereals providing fair amount of protein, minerals and vitamins in abundance to the people. The parental values of different traits in different crosses depend on their potential and their combining ability in different combinations. The concept of general and specific combining abilities is useful to characterize the hybrids in the breeding programme and also elucidate the nature and magnitude of gene actions involved in the trait of interest. Two hybrids namely CO (Ra) 14 x PR 202 and GPU 28 x K 7 were found to be superior for grain yield and other major yield components along with the protein content based on per se performance, sca effect and standard heterosis.

Keywords: Heterosis, Combining ability, Hybrids, Additive gene action, gca, sca.