Evaluation of White Clover (Trifolium repens L.) Germplasm for Different Agro-Morphological Traits Diversity in Mid-Himalayan Region

Abstract

White clover (Trifolim repens L.) is one of the most nutritious and widely grown forage legumes in the world. It is also a common component of cool season perennial grass pastures in Indian Mid-Himalayas. Being an important component of temperate grassland, diminutive efforts have been made in genetic improvement of white clover through comprehensive evaluation of germplasm collection. In present study, total 258 germplasm accessions of white clover were characterized under field conditions for the genotypic variation in twenty five agro-morphological traits. Characterized germplasm showed sufficient variation among the populations for qualitative traits, biomass yield and seed yield as revealed by range and coefficient of variation. Association analysis showed that dry matter yield was positively correlated with seed yield components traits. Principal component analysis revealed that first seven principal components accounted more than 60% of total variation. Out of 258, ten high biomass producing populations were selected and further evaluated for biomass yield, crude protein and seed yield potential. Average biomass yield of three populations viz., RRCPL-13 (15.74 q/ha/year), RRCPL-19 (17.25 q/ha/year), RRCPL-27 (18.79 q/ha/year) were better than the check variety Palampur Composite-1 (14.99 q/ha/year). Results of this study will help in designing future strategy in white clover improvement program for the development of new varieties. Also, the seeds extracted from Legon 18 had higher viability than BAG 14/001 at all maturity stages.