| Summary: | The genetic distance for 41 genotypes of finger millet collected from different geographical areas was estimated using D2 statistics. These genotypes were grouped into seven clusters. Cluster II, I, V, VI, and III comprised 17, 10, 7, 3 and 2 genotypes, respectively. The clusters IV and VII were mono-genotypic indicating wide divergence from other clusters. Most of the strains were from same origin and found to be one or more components of seven clusters indicating the presence of wide genetic variability among the material belonging to same geographical origin. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters II and VII followed by IV and VII suggesting the use of genotypes from these clusters to serve as potential parents for hybridization. The characters iron content (70.12%) contributed maximum towards divergence followed by plant height (11.72%) , days to physiological maturity (7.07%) and days to 50% flowering (5.49%).
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