Vol. 11, Issue 11 (2022)

A field experiment was conducted at Genetics and Plant Breeding Research Farm of Kisan (P.G.) College, Simbhaoli, Hapur (UP), India during Rabi 2021-22 with 20 diverse genotypes of Indian mustard to assess the genetic variability, correlation, path coefficient and cluster analysis for yield and yield related traits. The genotypes were evaluated for thirteen quantitative characters viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), number of primary branches plant^-1, number of secondary branches plant^-1, length of main raceme (cm), silique on main raceme (cm), seeds silique^-1, 1000-seed weight (g), biological yield plant^-1 (g), harvest index (%), oil content (%) and seed yield plant^-1 (g) .The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters. The highest estimates of the phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were observed for seed yield plant^-1, biological yield plant^-1, Secondary Branches Plant^-1 and Primary Branches Plant^-1. Seed yield plant^-1, Biological yield plant^-1 and harvest index showed high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean indicating the influence of additive gene effects. Seed yield plant^-1 showed highly significant and positive association with biological yield plant^-1 followed by Length of main raceme, Silique on main Raceme, Secondary Branches Plant^-1, harvest index and plant height. Path analysis identified biological yield plant^-1 (both at genotypic and phenotypic level) followed by silique on main raceme (at genotypic level) and harvest index (at phenotypic level), as major direct contributors towards seed yield plant^-1. Secondary branches plant^-1 followed by length of main raceme, plant height, silique on main raceme, seeds silique^-1, days to maturity, 1000-seed weight, and primary branches plant^-1 showed maximum positive indirect effect on seed yield plant^-1 via., biological yield plant^-1. The characters mentioned above should be given due consideration at the time of selection to develop stable high yielding genotypes in Indian mustard to sustain the production and productivity. Based on D² values, all the 20 genotypes were grouped in 5 clusters. Cluster II possessing maximum (8) genotypes followed by cluster III, IV, I and V. The maximum intra-cluster distance was found for cluster IV and minimum for cluster V. The highest inter- cluster distance was observed between cluster V and IV whereas lowest inter- cluster distance was observed between cluster II and III. The results clearly showed crossing between the entries belonging to cluster pairs having large inter-cluster distances and possessing high cluster means for one or other characters to be improved may be recommended for isolating desirable recombinants in the segregating generations in Indian Mustard.