UTILIZATION OF MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS TO ASCERTAIN SELECTION CRITERIA FOR ENHANCED NUTRITIOUS FODDER YIELD AND CONTRIBUTING ATTRIBUTES IN SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor L.)

To get desired level of agricultural crop production, researchers are working hard to achieve appropriate plant genetics which should counterpart with management practices and prevalent environmental conditions. Plant breeders can be more effective in the development of stress tolerant crop cultivars and hybrids when the genetic mechanisms of key traits are understood. The scope of this study was to investigate the genetic potential for divergence and association analysis of fodder yield and quality contributing attributes in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench]. Twenty genotypes of sorghum from USDA and Pakistan were assessed for 10 quantitative traits to recognize the supreme genotypes with balanced fodder quality as well as nutritional aspects. Phenotypic measurements indicated significant variation in plant height (45.33cm to 104.67cm), number of leaves per plant (10.00 to 17.67), leaf area (158.20 cm2 to 356.52 cm2), inter-nodal distance (5.86 cm to 12.10 cm), stem girth (7.36 mm/inch to 11.547 mm/inch), green forage yield (259.62 g to 584.90 g), crude fibre (13.42 % to 31.64 %), crude protein (3.77 % to 6.68 %), total ash contents (8.87 % to 20.65 %) and total digestible nutrients (52.89 % to 72.47 %). Among all the genotypes under investigation U-58 and P-19 performed the best for forage yield and quality related parameters. Green forage yield, crude protein and total digestible nutrient were the traits which were positively correlated with each other in cluster 3, so can be used as selection criteria. This study provided the baseline for future breeding program to maximize the forage yield and quality attributes.