Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

The present investigation entitled "Exploitation of Genetic Variability and Trait Association Analysis for Quantitative Traits in Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.)" was carried out during Rabi 2021-22 with three environments. Experimental material consisted of 20 Indian mustard genotypes. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Complete Block Design, using recommended agronomic practices for normal growth of crop. Field experiment conducted at the village Naugaya, Bharatpur, Rajasthan during Rabi season 2017-18 and 2018-19. Analysis of variance showed genotypes were highly significant for all the traits in EI, EII and EIII analysis of Indian mustard, suggesting presence of substantial amount of variability among the genotypes for all the traits under study. Magnitude of PCV% and GCV% for different traits revealed that the maximum amount of variability was found for number of secondary branches per plant in EII and EIII of Indian mustard. Number of primary branches per plant and Seed yield per plant exhibited moderate PCV% and GCV % in EI, EII and EII of Indian mustard but number of secondary branches per plant exhibit moderate magnitude of PCV% and GCV% in EI of Indian mustard. High heritability was observed for all traits viz., Days to 50% flowering, Days to maturity, Plant height (cm), Number of primary branches per plant, Number of secondary branches per plant, Number of siliquae on main raceme, biological yield and Seed yield per plant (g) in EI, EII and EII of Indian mustard. Genetic advance as percentage of mean was noted high for number of secondary branches per plant in E, EII and EIII. Significant and positive correlation was observed for seed yield per plant with number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, number of siliquae on main raceme and biological yield in all the environments. In the present study the path coefficient analysis revealed that number of siliquae on main raceme, number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, days to maturity and plant height had the highest positive direct effect on seed yield per plant. Contribution of individual traits towards the total divergence was found maximum for plant height (cm), seed yield per plant (g), Number of secondary branches per plant, biological yield, Days to 50% flowering, Number of primary branches per plant, Number of siliquae on main raceme and Days to maturity in all the environments. Clustering pattern of genotypes confirmed the quantum of diversity present in the material under study. In EI, EII and EIII cluster I exhibited largest among all the clusters comprising of 18, 17 and 17 genotypes respectively in Indian mustard genotypes. Intra cluster distance was recorded maximum for cluster I whereas two clusters viz., cluster II and cluster III showed zero value in EI, Cluster I showed maximum intra cluster D² value whereas three clusters viz., II, III and IV showed zero value in EII; Cluster I was most divergent, whereas three clusters viz., II, III and IV showed zero value for Intra cluster distance in EIII.