Morphological Characterization and Evaluation of Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] Landraces in Benishangul Gumuz, North-western Ethiopia

Although sorghum is an important cereal crop in Benishangul Gumuz, few studies have been undertaken on existing diversity. Hence, the objective of this study was to characterize sorghum landraces collected from five districts of north western BGRS. Twenty-five sorghum genotypes including the local check (Emohay) were tested in RCBD with three replications during the 20011/2012 rainy seasons at Pawe to assess the presence and degree of variability for desired morphological traits in sorghum landraces. Plots with two rows per plot each 5 m long with spacing of 0.75 m between rows, 0.15 m between plants and 1.5 m between blocks (a plot area of 7.5 m²) was used. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among entries for most quantitative characters.Eleven landraces gave better grain yield between 41.38 to 48.9 q/ha indicating the possibility of identifying superior genotype to be selected among the landraces. Genotype 021pw-2010 was the highest yielded (48.9 q/ha) landrace. The lowest GCV and PCV were obtained for days to maturity while the highest PCV and GCV were obtained for plant height. Higher ratios of the phenotypic variance to genotypic variance were recorded for days to flowering, days to maturity, leaf length, leaf width, single leaf area, number of leaves, plant height, head length, head width, head weight and grain yield indicating that the traits will be highly influenced by the environment. Broad sense heritability estimates for the traits ranged from 45.1% (for head weight) to 99.8% (for single leaf area). Grain yield showed higher significant positive genetic correlation with days to maturity, head weight, head width and head length, and a negative significant correlation with single leaf area and number of leaves at phenotypic level. The high performing accessions of the landraces screened in this study should further be evaluated under a wide range of environments to find widely adapting landraces. The variability observed in the study could be given emphasis while planning a breeding strategy for increased grain yield. Collection, conservation and utilization of available materials across BGRS must be given attention.