Ghassan Al Lahham* ⁽¹⁾ Elias Aweel ⁽¹⁾ Razan Al Najjar ⁽¹⁾ Majeda  Rwely ⁽¹⁾  Ghrood  Al Assod ⁽¹⁾  Riad  Balish⁽¹⁾ and Mohammed  Ali ⁽¹⁾

(1). Crops Research Administration, Genaral Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.

(*Corresponding author: Dr. Ghassan Al Lahham. E-Mail: gh_lahham@hotmail.com).

Received: 09/04/2017                                Accepted: 29/04/2017

Abstract

This study was carried out at Kharabu Station, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), during the growing seasons 2011 and 2012, to estimate phenotypic correlation, and path coefficient of some morphological and green fodder yield components (days to flowering, plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, number of tillers per plant, and green fodder yield (ton/ha)). Fifteen pearl millet crosses resulted from half diallel mating system between six inbred lines. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD), with three replications. The results showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between green fodder yield, and plant height, number of leaves, and number of tillers per plant (r = 0.787 **, 0.689 **, 0.841 **), respectively, and between plant height, number of leaves and number of tillers per plant (r = 0.500 *, 0.734**), respectively, suggesting that these traits can be used to improve green fodder yield of pearl millet. Path analysis clarified that number of tillers per plant, plant height and number of leaves per plant had a direct effect on green fodder yields. Also plant height had an indirect effect on both number of tillers, and number of leaves per plant, which are the most important traits that contribute to green fodder yield (61.97%), therefore they can be adopted as a selection criterion, for improving the green fodder yield of pearl millet crop, in summer season during the scarcity of forage in Syria.

Keywords: Phenotypic correlation, Path analysis, Green fodder yields, Pearl millet.

Full paper in Arabic:PDF