Trait association and path analysis for grain yield in oat in the western zone of Tamil Nadu.

Twenty one new oats genotypes were grown during Rabi, 2012-2013 to assess the performance, variability, heritability, genetic advance, correlation, and path analysis using twelve different yield and yield attributing traits viz., plant height(cm), number of productive tillers/plant, number of productive tillers/plant, panicle length(cm), panicle weight(g), number of grains/panicle, 1000grain weight(g), 1000groat weight(g), groat percentage, dry matter yield/plant(g), harvest index(%)and single plant yield/plant(g). For field evaluation Randomized complete Block Design with three replications was followed. Analysis of variance revealed that significant differences could be observed among the entries for all the characters studied. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were high for number of basal tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant, and number of grains per panicle. Broad sense heritability estimates for various traits ranged from 71 to 96.0 per cent. The highest heritability and genetic advance were recorded for the traits viz., number of productive tillers/plant (86.0 per cent and 85.06), number of grains/ panicle (92 per cent and 64.87) and panicle length (96.0 per cent and 37.23). Single plant yield showed significant positive correlation with number of basal tillers per plant (0.68 and 0.77), number of productive tillers per plant (0.78 and 0.89), number of grains/panicle (0.62 and 0.54) and dry matter yield / plant (0.44 and 0.50). It was concluded that number of productive tiller per plant and number of grains per panicle are major yield contributing factors in selecting high yielding oats genotypes. The study showed that there exists a large genetic variation among oats genotypes for most of the traits which could be exploited for direct selection of high yielding genotypes. Finally expect that these novel germplasm of oats which is suitable to winter growing should be useful for plain condition.