Correlation Studies of Morpho-physiological Characters with Seed Yield in Rapeseed (Brassica rapa var. Toria)

Background: In the North-Eastern states, Assam has the highest area of cultivation of rapeseed and found to be potential hub for increasing productivity to a great extent. To fulfil the increasing demand for edible oils, interdisciplinary approaches including physiological parameters must be paid off. The suitable genotype for a particular region has to be identified based on physiological efficiency and yield. Methods: A field experiment was carried out at the Instructional-cum-Research (ICR) Farm, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat-13, Assam during rabi seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications comprising of 22 different genotypes of rapeseed including TS-38 (Check), TS-46, TS-67, TS-36, TS-29, TS-75-1, TS-75-1TL, TS-75-2ME, TS-75-2-MM, TS-76-1, TS-76-2, JT-90-1, Panchali, Bhawani, CG Toria-4, TKM-20-1, TKM-20-2, JT-14-5, PT-2018-09, CG Toria-3, Tapeshwari and PT-303. The crops were grown following the recommended package of practices. All the morpho-physiological parameters, yield attributes and yield were recorded following the standard methodologies. The correlation coefficients of morpho-physiological characters and different yield components with seed yield were worked out from the pooled values of two years following the standard method. Result: The results indicated that number of green leaves per plant, stem diameter, total dry weight, total leaf chlorophyll content, AGR and CGR showed highly significant positive correlation with seed yield, clearly indicating their contribution towards higher yield in rapeseed. The number of primary branches and SLW exhibited significant positive correlation with seed yield. Among the yield attributes, number of siliqua per plant, seeds per silique, seeds per plant, sink capacity, stover yield and harvest index showed a highly significant positive correlation with the seed yield.