Assessment of genetic diversity in Jute (Corchorus olitorius L.) under rain fed condition

Abstract

Jute fibre is obtained from the bark of the two commercially important species namely Corchorus capsularis L. and Corchorus olitorius L. 20 genotypes of white jute were sown in Randomized Block Design with three replications classified by Mahalanobis D 2 statistics under rainfed condition to identify desirable genotypes for use in breeding programme to develop drought tolerant hybrids. Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster III and II while cluster III showed the maximum intra cluster distance. Green weight was found to be the maximum contributor (21.58%) towards divergence followed by dry stick weight (20%), top diameter (15.79%) and fibre yield (14.74%). Cluster V was found to be most important group for a number of characters like green weight, bark thickness, basal diameter as well as mid diameter, plant height and internode length. Therefore, for improvement of the crop the genotypes from clusters V, IV and II may be considered to obtain high fibre yielding lines with characteristic features like earliness and plant with least number of nodes under rainfed condition. Key words: Tossa jute, fibre, rainfed, divergence, olitorius.