GENETIC-VARIABILITY AMONG SORGHUM ACCESSIONS FROM THE SAHELIAN AGROECOLOGICAL REGION OF BURKINA-FASO

The authors collected Sahelian sorghum landraces of Burkina Faso in 19 84 and 74 of these accessions were characterized in 1985-1986 at Gampe la in Burkina Faso (West Africa). The five races of cultivated sorghum were represented in this zone but 63.5% of the accessions were Guinea type. Great intra- and inter-accession variability was found. Plants were tall and had long panicles and small to intermediate seeds. There was a strong association between days-to-flowering, number of interno des, panicle length and height. The 100-kernel weight showed an antago nism with days to flowering and tillering. Multivariate analyses were made which enabled the accessions to be classified into four groups. T he group most adapted to the sahelian zone, 'sahelian group', was semi -late, developed intermediate size of vegetative organs, had moderate tillering and had the best yield per plant.