Environmental sensitivity of parents and their crosses for combining ability and rank correlation in Brassica rapa L. var. Yellow Sarson

Abstract

Brassica rapa L. var. yellow sarson occupies major area in Bihar, West Bengal, Eastern Uttar Pradesh and North Eastern States. Despite several changes in the rapeseed mustard sector, such as development of improved varieties, region specific production technology, India is not yet self sufficient in edible oil production [1]. The yellow sarson being autogamous in nature has an edge over out-breeding toria types under adverse weather situations such as foggy and cloudy conditions. However, varieties good in per se performance may not necessarily produce desirable progenies when used in hybridization. Knowledge about combining ability is important in selecting suitable parents for hybridization, proper understanding of underlying inheritance of quantitative traits and also in identifying the promising crosses for further use in breeding programme. However, environmental effect greatly influences the combining ability estimates.