STUDIES ON GENETIC VARIABILITY IN SAFFLOWER ( ARIABILITY IN SAFFLOWER (Carthamus Carthamus tinctorius tinctorius L.)

Abstract

An evaluation was carried out to study the variability estimates among the yield component traits. A considerable amount of variation shown by all genotypes in their mean performances with respect to evaluated characters indicates the presence of ample variability. It scopes for selection of superior and desirable genotypes for breeding. The ANOVA revealed that the component of variance for genotypes were positively highly significant for all the characters studied viz. rosette period (34.98), days to 50% flowering (103.69), days to maturity (67.97), plant height (263.03), capitulum/plant (77.55), seeds per capitulum (45.87), volume weight (gms /100 ml water volume) (60.01) and harvest index %(12.72) . High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation played a major role for the expression of the traits with seed yield (20.58 %, GCV) (21.21%, PCV), while moderate GCV & PCV recorded for characters viz. number of capitulum per plant (19.08 % , 19.90 %), number of branches per plant (17.90%,19.24 %), 100 seed weight (gms) (14.43 %,14.65 %), number of seeds per capitulum (12.52 %,13.90 %), biological yield per plot (kg) (13.78 %,13.90 %) and harvest index % (10.62 %,12.08 %). The high GCV and PCV value indicates the importance of these characters and which can be strategically used to improve the yield of safflower.