ABSTRACT

This research was conducted to study heterosis and inheritance of sugar, grain yield

and other agronomic traits in sweet sorghum. The parental materials used in this study

comprised ten parents (seven males and three females) selected based on their high

sugar level. Seven sweet sorghum genotypes were used as male parent which were

crossed with three IAR improved grain sorghum as female parents.

The parents were mated in a North Carolina mating design II Model I in IAR Samaru

field, generating 21 F1s. The 10 parents and their 21 F1 progenies were evaluated at

Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Samaru, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria

irrigation field during the 2015/2016 dry season. The experiment was laid out in a

randomized, 4 x 8 alpha lattice design with two replications. Data were collected on

some agronomic traits along with brix content and sugar yield. . Data were analyzed

using SAS (2002) following alpha lattice and NCII design model I. Significant

genetic variations were observed for most of the characters studied indicating the

presence of variability among the genotypes which is a pre-requisite for any crop

improvement programme. High heritability was observed in days to 50% flowering,

plant height and brix content while panicle exertion recorded the lowest heritability,

indicating that the expression of most of the trait is not easily affected by

environment. Baker‟s ratio value revealed the preponderance of additive gene action

for the inheritance of sugar concentration, brix content, plant height and 1000-grain

weight. Hybrids Samsorg 40 x F5.3ssm10-31/2-3 (3938.64 kg/ha, 11.38 g/l), Samsorg

14 x F5.3ssm10-31/5-1 (3086.4 kg/ha, 13.18 g/l), Samsorg 40 x F5.3ssm10-1/1-8

(3000.16 kg/ha, 12.53 g/l) had resulted in higher grain yields and sugar content when

co