Assessment of trait efficiency and selection of parents in brinjal (<i>Solanum melongena</i> L.)

Abstract

Twenty one brinjal genotypes with a number of quantitative traits were assessed under biometric analysis for evaluating efficient agro-economic traits and selecting promising parents. No. of fruits in inflorescence/plant, fruits/plant, yield/plant (g), fresh weight/fruit (g), harvesting period and no. of fruits in solitary/plant can consider as favorable attributes for improvement through selection because of their higher GCV, PCV, heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean. Emphasis can be given to characters with high positive direct effect on yield like no. of fruits in inflorescence/plant, fresh weight/fruit (g) and no. of secondary branches/plant. Improvement would be more efficient with selection index I 134 based on three characters (yield/plant (g) + no. of fruits in inflorescence/plant + no. of fruits in solitary/plant) which showed genetic gain 3.39 and relative efficiency 258.14% significantly higher to other indexes based on four or more characters. Biplot analysis using selection score and decisive trait index indicated that Sada Begun, Debjhuri Hajari, Kajla, and BARI-9 can be the promising parents for future breeding programme.