Variations of genotypes, seasons and genotype by season interactions for yield, yield components and agronomic traits in finger millet

บทคัดย่อ

The socio-economic importance of finger millet is high for African and some Asian countries, and the crop has considerable potential in dryland farming systems of semi-arid and arid regions. The research was conducted to determine: (i) the magnitude and nature of the genotype by season interaction, and (ii) the response of genotypes to different seasons. Thirty-five finger millet accessions were evaluated in the dry season of 2010/11 and the rainy season of 2011 at the Field Crops Experiment Station, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand. A randomized complete block design with 3 replications was used in this study. The combined analyses showed significant differences among seasons, genotypes and genotype by season interactions for yield per plant, 1000-seed weight, finger length, plant height and days to flowering. Season contributed to a large proportion of variations in yield per plant (53.09%) and was moderate for plant height (32.28%). However, variations due to genotype varied for 1000seed weight (38.34%), finger length (64.78%), finger number (36.80%), finger width (50.84%), plant height (39.06%) and days to flowering (64.79%) while variations due to genotype by season interaction were moderate for plant yield (23.05%), finger number (29.98%) and finger width (27.83%).