ASSESSMENT OF DROUGHT ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS IN RED SORGHUM (SORGHUM BICOLOR) GERMPLASM AND LAND RACESK. Geetha, S. Srividhya, P. Thilagam and E. JamunaAbstract From the farmerâs field of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts fourteen local land races of sorghum were collected and sixteen germplasm accessions from the Department of Plant Genetic Resources, TNAU, Coimbatore along with two promising sorghum varieties Paiyur 1 and Paiyur2 were taken for study and characterization was done for six drought tolerant traits. Among the 32 land races evaluated, Sorghum land races 16-05 (RS), 2457, 16-01 (RS), 2657, 4269 were found to be early in (82-85 days), high yielding (28 to 29.3g/plant), having high photosynthetic rate, (38.6 umolm2s-1), high Proline content (394 ugg-1) and high soluble protein content (14.4 mgg-1) and hence found to be tolerant to drought. These sorghum land races can be used as one of the parents in crossing programme for developing short duration, high yielding drought tolerant varieties in sorghum. |