Framing a cotton improvement program through genetic analysis and character association

This research study investigates genetic differences among cotton genotypes and how these differences impact on important traits like seed cotton yield and fiber quality. The analysis showed that there were significant genetic differences between the cotton genotypes for all the traits examined. Some genotypes, like CP 1512, G. Cot. 100 and KOP 3 showed promising results in terms of seed cotton yield. The study found that genetic factors played a major role in the traits of the cotton plants, meaning that the observed differences were mostly due to the plants' genetic makeup rather than environmental factors. Traits such as days to first picking, bolls per plant, and lint yield per plant showed high heritability, meaning they are strongly influenced by genetics, and thus simple selection could improve these traits over time. Among all traits studied viz. sympodia per plant, bolls per plant, lint yield per plant and ginning outturn showed highly significant and positive association with seed cotton yield per plant at both genotypic as well as phenotypic level, hence they were most important yield contributing characters for increasing the seed cotton yield. Path analysis revealed that lint index, bolls per plant, and lint yield per plant had positive effects on seed cotton yield. However, traits like days to 50% flowering, plant height, and boll weight had negative effects on seed cotton yield.