Analyzing the variability parameters of the landraces and varieties of little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth ex Roem. & Schult.)

Little millet is one of the underutilized crops among the cereals, which is being cultivated by farmers of tribal agriculture. The landraces under cultivation possess excellent variability presenting good opportunities for selection. In view of this, the current study was carried out with 17 little millet landraces for 10 quantitative and nine qualitative traits. The study revealed the preponderance of additive gene action for all the 10 traits and hence efective selection could be done for their improvement. Higher to moderate ranges for PCV and GCV with minimum ECV for genetic variability for all the traits were observed. Among the nine qualitative traits, there were signifcant variations observed for inforescence shape and panicle compactness. Hence, these traits could be utilized as major DUS descriptors in diferentiating the little millet landraces in future. Further the PCA analysis exhibited three reliable principal components contributing to an overall variation of 74.54%. The traits such as days to 50% fowering, peduncle length and fag leaf length were the major positive contributors for variability across all the eigen vectors. These traits were found to exhibit a higher variability among the population and thus a rewarding selection and hybridization for improving these traits could be efected in future breeding programs. Among all the landraces and varieties chittan samai, perunsamai, ATL 1, CO 4 (samai), paakulam karunjamai and vellai samai could be further identifed as desirable donors for improving the yield parameters in little millet breeding programs in future.