Abstract:

To clarify the relationship among main agronomic traits of millet varieties in Shanxi, we analyzed 10 agronomic traits of 11 millet varieties by adopting the correlation analysis and principal component analysis. The results showed that: the variation range of agronomic traits was 1.94%-13.39%; the variation range of agronomic traits from big to small was single ear weight, grain weight per spike, yield, ear length, plant height, weight of thousand-grain, the number of days from emergence to heading, the number of days from heading to maturity, grain percentage and fertility period; 5 traits such as the number of days from heading to maturity, single ear weight, grain weight per spike, weight of thousand-grain and grain percentage were positively correlated with yield, among them, the number of days from heading to maturity was significantly and positively correlated with yield (P<0.05), the number of days from emergence to heading was significantly and negatively correlated with the number of days from heading to maturity (P<0.01), and the number of days from emergence to heading was significantly and positively correlated with fertility period (P<0.01). Among all the principal components’ analysis, the first three principal components were the focus, and their cumulative contribution rate to variance was 75.20%. In the comprehensive traits evaluation and breeding of high-yield varieties, grain weight per spike is the key to increase the yield, at the same time, comprehensive consideration should be paid to other traits, and varieties with high single ear weight, low plant height, moderate fertility period, ear length and grain percentage should be selected.

Key words: Shanxi, Millet, Agronomic Traits, Variation Degree, Correlation Analysis, Principal Component Analysis