Evaluation of f2 segregating sorghum population for earliness and yield performance

Abstract

Sorghum is the third most vital cereal crop worldwide in terms of production and area of coverage after maize and rice occupying up to 420,000ha of arable land. Sorghum satisfies the majority of the essential nutritional requirements for humans since it’s a very nutritious food which also support a strong immune system. Sorghum is, nevertheless, farmed in Uganda using rain-fed agricultural techniques that need little to no capital expenditures. Majority of the sorghum cultivars are landraces, which have a poor yield roughly 500 kg ha-1 at the farm level and are vulnerable to disease, pests, drought, and birds. One of the most significant of these limitations is the low yields in the majority of Uganda's sorghum-growing regions, which contribute to food insecurity, low earnings, and hunger in the farming communities. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to identify sorghum genotypes with high yielding background and early maturing for breeding to meet the needs of the farmers. The experiment was carried out in Soroti, Serere and Lira districts in Uganda. With a mean grain yield of 2837 kg ha-1 across all sorghum populations, genotypes SSGA109xSSGA114 (3768 kg ha-1) and SSGA101XSSGA1013 (3753 kg ha-1) had the highest grain yields, with a moderately high 100 grain weight of 2.889g, 3g, and 2.889g, respectively. However, genotype SSGA112 had the lowest grain yield (707 kg ha-1) and was followed by genotype SSGA113, which had a grain yield of 1936 kg ha-1. With genotype SSGA112 exhibiting delayed days to flowering at 96.78 days and SSGA111 with 81.22 days to 50% flowering, the majority of sorghum genotypes flowered late. The earliest genotypes to flower were SSGA107XSSGA111, maturing at 62.44 days, and SSGA108 (62.56 days). Nonetheless, this study found significant correlations between grain yield and other agronomic variables, and there was a positive relationship between yield and other yield components, such as 100 grain weight, panicle length, and panicle width.