GENETIC PARAMETERS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR YIELD IMPROVEMENT IN SESAME

This study was carried out using fourteen diverse sesame genotypes during Kharif 2003 at National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad. Genotypic and phenotypic variances and coefficients of variation, broad sense heritability, genetic advance (GA) and genetic advance as percent of mean were calculated for various agronomic characters. Highly significant differences were observed among genotypes for all the characters studied. Heritability estimates were high for days to flower initiation and completion, days to maturity, plant height, number of branches plant -1 , number of capsules plant -1 , seed yield plant -1 and seed yield m -2 . High heritability estimates together with high genetic advance were observed for number of branches plant -1 , number of capsules plant -1 , seed yield plant -1 and seed yield m -2 predicting additive gene action governing these characters. Mass selection based on these additively controlled characters is suggested for improvement of yield. In case of both, days to flower completion and days to maturity, high heritability accompanied with low genetic advance indicated non-additive gene effects for their expression. Number of capsules and branches plant -1 , seed yield plant -1 and seed yield m -2 possessed high genetic advance as percent of mean indicating prospects of improving seed yield from 30.58 to 57.91%. Emphasis should be placed on these characters for constructing reliable selection indices for the development of high yielding sesame genotypes.