The high SCA effects were shown bythe crosses 465A × G 46 (-15.35) (good x good GCA) and 9A × G 46 (-13.65) (goodx good) in E1; 465A × G 46 (-16.92) (good x good GCA) and 31A × IS2389 (-16.90) (good x good) in E2; 465A × G 46 (-16.
14) (good x goodGCA and 31A × IS 2389 (-13.92) (good x good) in E3 and 31A × IS 2389 (-17.98) (good x good GCA) and 465A × HJ 541 (-12.71)(good x good) in E4, respectively. Other crosses whichhad significant SCA effects were 14A × G 46 (9.17) and 9A × IS 2389 (8.32) in E1;14A × G 46 (10.
10) and 9A × IS 2389 (9.38) in E2 ; 9A × IS 2389(9.76) in E3 and 14A × G 46 (9.87) and 465A × HJ 513 (8.63) in E4.
This indicated that these crosses were found to be good specificcombiners for this character. Similar results have been reported by Reddy et. al (2006), Bello et. al (2007), Joshi et. al (2009), Singh et. al (2010) and Pandey et. al (2013). Two good combiningfemale and male parents in all the fourenvironments for various traits have been presented in Table 5a andTable 5b, respectively.
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Lines 9A, 31Aand 467A were good general combiner female parents for protein content while9A, 14A and 467A were good combiner female parents for protein yield in twoenvironments. Female parents 9A and 56A were also better combiners for HCN content, IVDMD and DDM in more than twodifferent environments. HJ 513 and G 46 were found to be good general combiner male parents for protein content,protein yield, IVDMD and DDM in more than two different environments. Similarresults have been reported by Agarwal and Shrotria (2005), Pandey et. al (2013) and Rani et.
al (2013). Best specific cross combinations for differentcharacters have been presented in Table 6. Read-through of this table revealedthat the cross combination of 465A × HJ 513 and 9A × IS 2389 were better for protein yield, IVDMD and DDMin more than two different environments. The cross combination of 465A ×IS 2389 was better for protein content (crude protein) and 465A × HJ 513 wasgood specific combiner for IVDMD and DDM.
The cross combination of 31A × IS 2389and 465A × G 46 exhibited high and negative SCA effects for HCN content.Similar results have been reported by Kamdi et.al (2011) and Bibi et. al (2012).Thus, the study reveals that there is lot of scope for the use of these linesin future breeding programmes in the development of either base populations orhybrids. The lines with lower hydrocyanic acid contents can be exploited forthe improvement of quality of fodder sorghum thereby enhancing the nutritivevalue of the crop.
