GENETIC ASSOCIATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CHILLI (CAPSICUM ANNUUM L.) GERMPLASM FOR YIELD AND ITS COMPONENT CHARACTERS

To characterize and select chilli genotypes for different qualitative and quantitative traits through determination of extent of genetic variability for those traits and interrelationship among the characters and their direct and indirect effects on yield for further breeding programme of improved chilli hybrids.To study the magnitude of variability for different morphological traits, of 75 chilli genotypes were evaluated at University Instructional Farm, School of Agriculture & Allied Sciences, The Neotia University, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India during autumn-winter season of 2023.Through analysis of variance, a wide significant difference was found for almost all characters indicating a greater opportunity of exploiting variability.High GCV and PCV values were recorded for plant height, fruit length, fruit shape index, fruit: stalk length, fruits per plant, fruit weight and fruit yield per plant.Phenotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV) and Genotypic co-efficient of variation (GCV) were recorded maximum for plant height, fruit length, fruit shape index, fruit: stalk length, fruits per plant, fruit weight and fruit yield per plant.In the present study all characters showed high heritability with high genetic advance.The character fruit yield per plant was significantly and positively correlated with fruit length, stalk length, fruits per plant, fruit weight, 1000-seed weight, fruit shape index and fruit: stalk length.Path analysis showed that fruits per plant exerted highest direct positive effect on fruit yield per plant; followed by fruit weight and fruit shape index in both the years.From the association studies, the characters, viz., days to 50% flowering, fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit length, 1000-seed weight, stalk length, fruit shape index and fruit: stalk length, were established as the most important yield contributing characters of chilli.