ESTIMATE OF VARIABILITY FOR YIELD AND ITS CHARACTERS IN NIGERIAN SESAME (Sesamum indicum) GENOTYPES

Abstract

Thirteen genotypes of sesame (Sesamum indicum) were evaluated in field trials for two years in thefield in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results showed year effect tobe highly significant for all the characters except 1000-seed weight, and genotype effect was highlysignificant for all the characters except height of first capsule. Also genotypes x year interactions weresignificant for number of days to flower and 1000-seed weight. Genotype Packqueno, NCRI-Ben-03L,Yandev and NCRI-Ben-01M had highest seed yield per hectare (0.229; 0.209; 0.204 and 0.206t/harespectively). Close resemblance between genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypiccoefficient of variation (PCV) was observed for all traits except number of days to flower indicating thatselection for these traits would be effective. Heritability estimates in general were high for all the ninecharacters studied except number of days to flower. Most characters showed significant positive correlationwith grain yield except 1000-seed weight which showed negative correlation with seed yield.The PCA identified height at maturity (94%), number of capsule per plant (93%), height of flowering(92%), height of first capsule (85%), capsule weight per plant (78%) and number of seeds per capsule(93%) as the characters that contributed significantly to variations found in the sesame genotypes.Highest heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for capsule weight per plant,height of first capsule and seed yield per hectare. Thus, these traits could be used as selection criteriafor yield improvement in sesame.