HERITABILITY, CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND GENETIC ADVANCE IN SEVEN AGRONOMIC AND YIELD RELATED CHARACTERS IN TOSSA JUTE (Corchorus olitorius) GENOTYPES

The objective of this study was to assess fifty genotypes of Corchorus olitorius for broad-sense heritability, character association and genetic advance in seven yield related characters. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Highly significant genotypic differences were reported for all the characters. The maximum coefficient of range was reported for green weight/plant (0.47) followed by fibre weight/plant (0.46), green bark thickness (0.44), stick weight/plant (0.39) and core diameter (0.39). The phenotypic and genotypic variance was highest in green weight/plant (4203.63 and 4199.07). The high PCV and GCV values recorded in green weight/plant (24.27 and 24.25). The maximum estimates of broad-sense heritability was recorded in green weight /plant (99.89) followed by stick weight/plant (99.77), fibre weight /plant (99.61) and green bark thickness (85.71). Strong significant and positive correlation was reported between plant height and base diameter (0.546); core diameter (0.492) green bark thickness (0.324); green weight/plant (0.363); fibre weight/plant (0.428) and stick weight/plant (0.418). The result from this study leads to the conclusion that Green weight/plant, Fibre weight/plant and Stick weight/plant should be considered during selections for yield in C. olitorius.