ESTIMATION OF GENETIC VARIABILITY, CORRELATION COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS FOR YIELD AND ITS CONTRIBUTING TRAITS IN GENOTYPES OF LINSEED (LINUM USITATISSIMUM L.)

In this study, sixty linseed genotypes, including three checks , were assessed to analyze genetic variability, correlation coefficient, and path coefficient analysis for yield and its contributing traits in linseed genotypes during rabi 2021-22 and rabi 2022-23 at the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, IGKV, Raipur, C.G., India.An analysis of variance for all traits revealed that the presence of significant variability among the sixty linseed genotypes.The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) exceeded the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) across all traits.The highest value of GCV and PCV was recorded for seed yield per plant (39.1 and 40.5), number of capsules per plant (31.7 and 34.6), number of seeds per plant (31.7 and 35.1) and number of primary branches per plant (22.6 and 32.3) on pooled basis of rabi 2021-22 and rabi 2022-23.High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean was estimated in seed yield per plant (93.5 and 77.9), number of capsules per plant (84.3 and 60), number of seeds per plant (81.3 and 58.9) and 1000 seed weight (g) (86 and 31.4) on pooled basis of rabi 2021-22 and rabi 2022-23, indicating that heritability might result from additive genetic effects, suggesting that simple selection based on these traits could be effective.Positive and significant correlation between the required characters promote improvement in both the traits.Seed yield per plant exhibited positive significant genotypic and phenotypic correlation with number of primary branches per plant (0.21 and 0.20), number of capsules per plant (0.6 and 0.6), number of seeds per plant (0.63 and 0.64) and 1000 seed weight (0.18 and 0.18) on pooled basis.Path coefficient analysis considering seed yield per plant as dependent character revealed that number of seeds per plant (0.5) showed the highest positive direct effect followed by days to 50% flowering (0.15), seed length (0.14), 1000 seed weight (0.13), number of capsules per plant (0.12), number of seeds per capsule (0.1) and plant height (0.01) on pooled basis.Direct selection for these traits may rewarded the improvement in yield because it showed their real relationship between seed yield and other characters.Significant and positive correlation along with positive direct effect with seed yield per plant was exhibited by traits such as number of capsules per plant (0.6, 0.6 and 0.12), number of seeds per plant (0.63, 0.64 and 0.5) and 1000 seed weight (0.18, 0.18 and 0.13).It signifies strong association between them and these traits should be prioritized while breeding for growth in seed yield per plant (g).