Genetic Analysis of Various Traits of Hybrids Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench),Correlated with Drought Tolerance

Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench is one of the most important dry land crops of semi-arid tropics. It is classified predominantly as a self-pollinated crop; however heterosis has been commercially exploited to improve its productivity. The low production of sorghum in Mali is due to several reasons including lack of sorghum hybrids and adapted varieties with tolerance to stresses such as drought. The objective of the study was to improve sorghum grain yield, through the development of high yielding hybrids tolerant to post flowering drought. A total of 60 F1 were planted along with six sorghum lines used as check. A total of 66 genotypes of sorghum were evaluated in both drought and well-watered conditions. The split-plot design with drought intensity as the main plots was used. To achieve the goal of this study, the observations on traits used in drought tolerance indices, and the methods of multivariate analysis and biplot analysis were used. Results revealed three hybrids (B35//134B)-F3-44/BCNAM-76-2, (B35//82B)-F3-64/BCNAM-45-1 and (B35//82B)-F3-104/BCNAM-76-2 as the most drought tolerant genotypes with high yield stability in both contrasting environments.