Phenotypic and Genotypic Diversity of Global Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn. ) Composite Collection ABharathiauthorA composite collection of 1000 accessions that included 622 core collection accessions was developed, to study diversity and population structure and develop a reference set of 300 genetically most diverse accessions using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs). The global composite collection of finger millet was evaluated in three environments viz., 2005/2006 post rainy season at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore (E1), in 2006 (E2) and 2007 rainy (E3) seasons at ICRISAT, Patancheru centre, Hyderabad for various morpho-agronomic traits under field conditions. For qualitative traits, the accessions of composite collection showed higher frequency for erect plant habit, green pigmentation, non lodging plant types, medium glume prominence, semi-compact inflorescence and light brown seed colour. High estimates of PCV, GCV and heritability in broad sense for most of the traits indicated that the yield attributes were stable with less environmental influence and variability could be exploited for selection of these traits. The traits such as number of basal tillers, ear head length, finger number, length of longest finger and flag leaf blade length exhibited a positive and significant phenotypic correlation and direct effect with grain yield in all the three or two environments indicating selection on these traits will simultaneously improve the yield. Stability analysis revealed wide range for linear regression (bi) which indicated variable responses of genotypes to environmental changes.Millets2011Tamil Nadu Agricultural University;Centre for Plant Breeding and GeneticsThesis