GENETIC DIVERSITY AND VARIABILITY OF INDIGENOUS LANDRACE GERMPLASM COLLECTION OF OKRA (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) FROM TRADITIONAL AGRO-ECOSYSTEMS IN TRIBAL AREAS OF TELANGANA, INDIA | Journal of Global Agriculture and Ecology
Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) is an Indian vegetable crop that is used for a variety of purposes. It is widely farmed in peri-urban, rural, and tribal locations across the country's many agro-ecological zones. Okra landraces are cultivated solely in tribal niches in traditional agro-ecosystems. During 2010-12, the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Regional Station, Rajendranagar gathered twenty landraces of okra through special agri-biodiversity surveys in tribal areas of Telangana's Adilabad District. These landraces were supplemented and assessed in a randomised block design with three replications at Vegetable Research Station, Rajendranagar during kharif 2013 to examine their mean performance, genetic diversity, and variability for 14 agronomic variables alongside one control, 'Arka Anamika.' For all of the qualities studied, analysis of variance revealed a large range of variability among the landraces. The landraces RNO-204 (248.84 g/plant), RNO-207 (242.83 g/plant), and RNO-212 (241.11 g/plant) were as promising as the check 'Arka Anamika' (231.91 g/plant) in terms of commercial yield, which would help enhance okra production in these tribal areas. The phenotypic variances and coefficients of variation were higher than the genotypic variances and coefficients of variation, showing that environmental factors influenced the expression of these traits more than genotypic factors. High genetic advance as a percent of mean for days to 50% flowering, first flowering node, first fruiting node, number of marketable fruits per plant, marketable yield per plant, and YVMV infestation on plants suggests that these traits were under the control of additive gene effect and could be effectively improved through selection. The landraces were divided into ten clusters according to the dendrogram constructed using Tocher's approach. There was no correlation between landrace grouping and geographic collection sites. Please see the link :- https://www.ikprress.org/index.php/JOGAE/article/view/2220
