Agriculture for Sustainable Development 2(1):14-21, 2014/Article Singh and *Corresponding author email: jschouhanpbg@gmail.com GENOTYPIC RESPONSE OF SORGHUM (SORGHUM BICOLOR) MUTANT LINES FOR YIELD AND QUALITY OF FODDER UNDER SUB- HUMID SOUTHERN PLAIN JOGENDRA SINGH, LATA CHAUDHARY AND NEELAM SHEKHAWAT Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur (Rajasthan)-313 001, India Received: 30.01.2014 Revised accepted: 28.02.2014 ABSTRACT An investigation was carried out with multicut forage sorghum variety SSG 59-3 and its 15 mutants derived from gamma irradiation to identify the superior mutant genotypes for high fodder yield and quality in sorghum. Differences among the genotypes were found significant for all the quality traits and most of the yield traits studied at different cut(s). The mutant genotypes SSG 226 was the best performer for both quality and fodder yield and, another two mutant genotypes SSG 231 and SSG 222 was also good for fodder yield and quality, respectively but it perform poorer for vice-versa. The genotype SSG 226 produced green fodder yield (3.33, 1.52 and 0.95 g/plant/day) and dry fodder yield (1.03, 0.61 and 0.42 g/plant/day) at first, second and third cuts, respectively with crude protein (8.18) along with desirable lowest crude fibre (30.60) and highest ash content (8.39) at first cut. Taking a better variety in respect to fodder yield and nutritional contents, the genotype SSG 226 should be preferred over the tested mutant genotypes for forage purpose. Keywords: Multicut forage sorghum, Mutant lines, SSG 59-3. INTRODUCTION Availability of adequate quantity of quality feed and fodder for livestock is essential for sustaining the livestock productivity. Due to increasing pressure on land for growing food grains, oil seeds, and pulses, fodder production generally gets lower priority. With about 2.29% share of the land area of the world, India is maintaining about 10.71% world’s livestock (SIA, 2013). Further, inadequate production and availability of improved fodder seeds, diverse uses of agriculture crop residues (paper industry, packaging, etc.), area has been declined under coarse cereals which are also used as feed for last 30 years, a substantial amount of crop residues is burnt by the farmers after harvesting the main crops like wheat and paddy, subsequently, the gap between the demand and supply of fodder is increasing. Fodder and feeds are the major inputs in animal production especially in milch animals, which account for about 60-70% of total cost of milk production. The present availability of green fodder is about 513 million tonnes projecting a deficit of 53% and that of dry fodder is around 400 million tonnes against the requirement of 676 million tonnes (Mukherjee et al., 1998). At present, fodder is being cultivated only on 4% of grossed cropped area, which is not adequate to meet the requirement of the livestock (State of Indian Agriculture, 2012-13). The forage crops are the cheapest source of animals feed and therefore, taken as foundation of livestock industry. The demand for livestock products is continuously rising due to their regular use in human diets. It has been estimated that need for forage crops up to 2050 will increase two to three folds in Asian countries (Devendra and Leng, 2011). To overcome such situation, genetically stable genotypes having good nutritional value and high fodder yield potential are urgently needed. Sorghum fodder plays an important role in the health and nutrition of the large population of livestock in the country by providing nutritive fodder. Sorghum is an important crop widely grown for grain and fodder with a greater emphasis on fodder particularly in semi-arid tracts. Sorghum produces a tonnage of dry matter having proportions of digestible nutrients (50%), crude protein (8%), fat (2.5%) and nitrogen free extracts (45%) (Azam et al., 2010). It can be used fresh as well as stored in form of silage and hay for future use. As a result of crop improvement programme, a number of promising strains of plants with diversified morphological and quality traits are available for general cultivation (Hussain et al., 1995). Agriculture for Sustainable Development http://www.sustainableagriculture.in Agriculture for Sustainable Development 2(1):14-21, 2014/Article ISSN 2347-5358 Print/ 2349-2228 Online