Variability, heritability and genetic advance in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Monech)

Abstract

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Monech) is an important vegetable crop grown for its tender green pods throughout India, Turkey, Sri Lanka and other neighboring countries. Fruit yield depends upon many yield components, since it is polygenic character. Exploitation of variability is of a great importance and pre requisite for the effective screening of superior genotypes. Magnitude and nature of genetic variability determined the progress of breeding for the economic characters and play an important role in a crop in selecting the best genotypes for making rapid improvement in yield and other desirable characters (Vavilov 1951). Heritability is an index for calculating the relative influence of environment on expression of genotypes. It is very difficult to judge how much of variability is heritable and how much of variability is non-heritable. Hence, it is essential to partition overall variability into its heritable and non heritable components with the help of genetic parameters like genotypic coefficient of variation, phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to study the variability, heritability and genetic advance for 15 quantitative traits in okra.