Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.), among small millets, is the most important food crop in some parts of Asia and Africa. The grains are a rich source of protein, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. A core collection of 622 accessions was developed.

The aim of this study was to develop a mini-core collection using multilocational evaluation data of the core collection. Six hundred and twentytwo accessions together with six controls (four common and two location-specific) were evaluated for 20 morphological descriptors at five agroecologically diverse locations in India during the 2008 rainy season. The experiment was conducted in α design with two replications at Patancheru and in augmented design with one of the six controls repeated after every nine test entry at other locations.

The hierarchical cluster analysis of data using phenotypic distances resulted in 40 clusters. From each cluster, ~10% or a minimum of 1 accession was selected to form a mini-core, which was comprised of 80 accessions. The comparison of means, variances, frequency distribution, Shannon–Weaver diversity index (H`), and phenotypic correlations revealed that the mini-core captured the entire diversity of the core collection. This mini-core collection is an ideal pool of diverse germplasm for identifying new sources of variation and enhancing the genetic potential of finger millet.