Vol. 10, Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Rajendra Kashyap, NR Rangare and Smita B Rangare

Abstract:
The experiment entitled “Evaluation of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Germplasm for some important morphological traits using multivariate analysis” was organized under All India Coordinated Research Project on Potato at Research and Instructional Farm, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, in Rabi 2020-21. All values obtained by analysis of variance for potato yield and yield attributing attributes revealed that there is sufficient amount of variability for all the characters. Presence of higher phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) than genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV) for all the characters indicating that expression of characters is less influenced by environment. The high heritability coupled with high genetic advance were exhibited by number of compound leaves plant^-1, fresh weight of shoots plant^-1, plant height and number of leaves plant^-1 and hence, it can be concluded that the selection of these traits may accumulate more additive genes leading to improvement of these characters. Tuber yield showed positive and significant correlation with number of compound leaves plant^-1, number of tuber plant^-1, dry weight of shoots plant^-1, and fresh weight of shoots plant^-1 at both genotypic and phenotypic level Therefore, selection based on these characters can give notable results for tuber yield improvement. Tuber yield showed positive direct effect with number of leaves plant^-1, number of tuber plant^-1, plant emergence, number of shoots plant^-1, number of compound leaves plant^-1 and dry weight of shoots plant^-1. These traits can be considered as key trait for advancement of total tuber yield. Clusters analysis distributed 20 genotypes into five clusters and it designates the presence of sufficient amount of genetic divergence in population. The maximum inter-cluster distance was found between cluster V and cluster IV indicates that the genotypes present in these cluster may be used as parent for hybridization.