Abstract
The study investigated genotypic and phenotypic co-efficients of variation, heritability, genetic advance at 5% selection intensity and in percentage of population mean of nine characters (plant height, leaf number, length and width of leaf lamina, number and weight of cormels per plant, weight of corm per plant, dry matter percentage in the tubers and tuber yield per from 14 cultivars of taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]). Results indicated highest genotypic co-efficient of variation for dry matter percentage (47.91), which was 95.78% of the phenotypic co-efficient of variation, whereas tuber yield per plant showed the widest range (819.37). Number of cormels per plant and dry matter percentage ehibited considerably higher heritability (84.90% and 91.70%, respectively) and genetic advance (81.19 and 79.00, respectively), indicating the potentiality of selection for improvement of such characters. These two characters were found to be positively correlated to tuber yield per plant. Path analysis revealed that weight of cormels per plant possessed the highest direct effect on tuber yield, indicating the importance of selection based on this character to increase tuber yield per plant.
Highlights
Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is a herbaceous perennial tuber bearing plant belonging to the family Araceae, with enlarged corms acting as starch storage organs
The highest F-value was observed in dry matter percentage (104.96) and the lowest value was found in case of plant height (3.00)
It was found that selection would potentially be rewarding for the improvement of the character dry matter percentage, as the highest GCV was recorded for this character, which had a good share of the respective PCV
Summary
Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is a herbaceous perennial tuber bearing plant belonging to the family Araceae, with enlarged corms acting as starch storage organs. There are several recognized cultivars of taro which can be categorized into two groups, namely, 1) Eddoe type To have a good choice of characters for selection of desirable genotypes under planned breeding program for higher yield, the knowledge of nature and magnitude of variation existing in available breeding materials, the association of component characters with yield and their exact contribution through direct and indirect effects are of crucial importance. Yield is a complex quantitative character and is the resultant of various component characters working together. For understanding the effect of the components on yield, it is essential to know the association of different characters among themselves and with that of yield
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