Genetic variability of mango ginger (Curcuma amada Roxb.) in Kerala.
Jayasree M., Mohanan K. V., Umamaheswari R.
Author Affiliation: Genetics and Plant Breeding Division, Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala 673 635, India.
Journal of Plantation Crops 34 : 164-166
Abstract : A study was carried out using 50 accessions of mango ginger (Curcuma amada Roxb.) collected from farmers' households of Kerala state of India to assess the extent of genetic variability existing in the crop based on four growth characters and nine yield characters. All the characters showed significant variability, indicating genotypic differences among the accessions. Yield per plant showed the highest variation that ranged from 30 g to 1230 g suggesting its usefulness in selection and other breeding programmes. PCV was higher than GCV in all the cases. Heritability (broad sense) varied from 15.83% (number of leaves per tiller) to 65.02% (plant height) among growth characters and from 7.56% (number of primary fingers) to 28.21% (breadth of mother finger) among yield characters. Genetic advance under selection was maximum for plant height (27.21%) followed by leaf area (26.34%) and in the case of yield characters, it was maximum for yield per plant (20.97%), thus showing the usefulness of these characters in selection.