Ashish Singh, Prashant Kumar Rai, Arvind Kumar, Shailesh Marker and Pramod Kumar Yadav
Keeping in view the lack of information on genetic variability in the linseed germplasm and need to study variability, heritability and genetic advance in this crop, the present investigation was undertaken on 53 germplasm of linseed. These accessions were evaluated at field experimentation centre of Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Allahabad during Rabi 2011-12. Estimates of genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variability indicated significant variability for all the quantitative traits under study. The low difference between GCV and PCV indicate the less influence of environment in the expression of characters studied. High heritability estimates were high for capsule per plant, plant height, biological yield per plant, seed yield per plant, harvest index, number of branches , test weight, days to maturity and number of seeds per capsule. These characters, therefore, may respond effectively to phenotypic selection. Further positive correlation of number of capsules per plant, test weight, number of seeds per capsules, biological yield per plant and plant height with grain yield proved that the genetic wroth of these characters in the indirect selection breeding for linseed improvement
