Heterosis in Pearl Millet for Yield and Yield Attributing Characters

The experimental material comprised of thirty two crosses along with twelve parents (four lines and eight testers) and standard checks AHB 1200 Fe and AHB 1269. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with two replications. The observations were recorded on ten characters viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of effective tillers, earhead length, earhead head girth, downey mildew, 1000 grain weight, grain yield and fodder yield. The analysis of variance revealed that there were significant differences among the parents and crosses for all the characters studied. Considering the heterosis ICMA 00888 X AUBI 15236, ICMA 00888 X AUBI 15157, ICMA 06777 X AUBI 15051 and ICMA 00888 X AUBI 15026 appeared to be the more promising hybrids for breeding.