Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance for Agronomic Traits of Ethiopian Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] Landraces

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is an important food security crop mainly in semi-arid and tropical parts of the African countries. Even though it is believed to be originated and domesticated in Ethiopia, sorghum production is inhibited by limited number of high yielding varieties. A field experiment was conducted at Assosa and Pawe Agricultural Research Centers during the 2019/20 cropping season with the objective of identifying sorghum landraces and breeding lines with high grain yield, study phenotypic and genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing traits. Forty two (42) sorghum landraces and breeding lines were planted in RCBD design in row column arrangement with two replications. The result of analysis of variance revealed that there is a significant variation among the tested landraces and breeding lines for all the evaluated characters. The highest yield of 3297Kg/ha was recorded for AScol19-Krm 124 followed by Ya036/1 with the mean yield of 3146kg/ha while the lowest grain yield of 817kg/ha was recorded for ETSCAs 10002-2-13-1 breeding line. Higher Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation and Genotypic Coefficient of Variation values were scored for grain yield. High estimates of broad sense heritability were found in all plant characters under study. Highest heritability estimates (97.8) were found in grain yield. Values of genetic advance ranged between 21.94 for days to physiological maturity to 1934.46 for grain yield and the genetic gain (of the mean percent) was ranged from 11.48 for days to physiological maturity to 99.41 for grain yield. The greater extent of broad sense heritability together with higher genetic advance in characters studied showed the evidence that these traits were under the control of additive genetic effects which means undertaking selection in these landraces and breeding lines should lead to a rapid enhancement of the traits studied.