Vegetos

Abstract

Napier grass, being robust, quick growing perennial allotetraploid fodder crop with repeated cutting ability is important for sustaining the animal population and maintaining its productivity. The analysis of variance in the present study showed highly significant differences among genotypes indicating the presence of adequate variability in the experimental material of Napier grass. Moderate PCV and moderate GCV were noticed for all the characters except green fodder yield, crude fat, crude fibre and leaf length. High heritability with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for plant height, number of nodes in main culm, number of tillers per plant, number of leaves per tiller, leaf width, leaf weight, stem weight, leaf stem ratio, dry matter per cent, crude protein and crude fat indicating the lesser environmental influence and prevalence of additive gene action in their inheritance. Number of tillers per plant, leaf length and dry matter content exhibited positive correlation and leaf stem ratio correlated negatively with green fodder yield per plant. Thus, the trait, number of tillers per plant and dry matter content having additive gene action and being positively correlated with green fodder yield can be used as selection criteria in further breeding programme for improvement of both fodder yield and quality.