Abstract:
The objective of this study was to assess 15 genotypes of Corchorus olitorius for broad-sense heritability, character association and genetic advance in five yield related characters. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. High estimates of broad-sense heritability was recorded in number of leaves per plant (96.99), plant height at maturity (95.61), leaf weight per plant (94.72), total weight per plant (97.02) and harvest index (75.00) suggesting additive gene effect in the expression of these characters. Meanwhile, Number of leaves per plant, plant height at maturity, leaf weight per plant and total leaf weight per plant, combining high heritability, Genotypic Coefficient of Variability (GCV) and Genetic Advance (GA), suggests that selection based on these characters will be meaningful in predicting for vegetative yield in C. olitorius. Strong positive genotypic and phenotypic correlation was reported between number of leaf per plant and plant height at maturity (0.43, 0.45), leaf weight per plant (0.86, 0.87), total plant weight (0.81, 0.82) and harvest index (0.33, 0.38), suggesting that selection based these characters will lead to an increase in vegetative yield of C. olitorius. Meanwhile, significant negative phenotypic and genotypic correlations between plant height at maturity and harvest index is an indication that selection based of plant height alone will depress vegetative yield in C. olitorius. The results from this study leads to the conclusion that number of leaves per plant, plant height, leaf weight per plant and total plant weight should be considered during selections for vegetative yield in C. olitorius.
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