Abstract:Field irrigation experiments were conducted to assess the varietal performance and correlation of pod yield and yield attributes under irrigation at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, during the 2015 and 2016 dry seasons. The results revealed that the most outstanding for fresh pod yield per plant were okra cultivar Kwadag Y'ar gagure Salkade, and Kwadam, in descending order, with yield ranging from 580.38 to 622.67 g, while the Composite cultivar had the lowest value of pod yield of 428.62 g over the two years. The greatest average values for the number of pods per plant and the number of primary branches per plant were observed for Salkade and Y'ar gagure, respectively. Highest fresh pod length and fresh pod diameter were also exhibited for Salkade and Kwadag. The genotypic coefficient of variation was higher than the phenotypic variation for the entire yield-contributing characters. Days to 50% flowering were positive and highly significant differences associated with plant height, number of pods per plant, and fresh weight per pod could be observed. Path coefficient analysis showed that the number of pods per plant exhibited positive and direct influence on the pod yield across the studied years. Indirect influence of other yield components through this character also contributed mainly towards pod yield. Therefore, days to 50% flowering, plant height, pod length, number of pods per plant, pod diameter, number of primary

Ten okra genotypes were evaluated at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria, during 2015 and 2016 dry seasons. The objective was to assess the degree of genetic diversity and heritability of different traits of okra. The combined analysis of variance revealed highly significant (p<0.01) differences among okra genotypes for plant height, days to 50% flowering, fresh pod length, fresh pod diameter and fresh weight per pod in both years. High heritability, genetic advance as percent of the mean and genotypic coefficient of variation were observed for all the studied characters except fresh pod diameter and days to 50% flowering. This indicated diverse genetic background and predominance of additive gene control for these characters, thereby providing a great scope for selection. Mahanalobis D2 analysis allocated the 10 genotypes into four clusters. Cluster I was the highest cluster consisting four genotypes, followed by cluster II with three genotypes and cluster III two genotypes, while cluster IV was monogenotypic. Involvement of the highest yielding genotypes (Salkade, Y’ar gagure and Kwadag) in hybridization could increase novel recombinants to exploit transgressive segregates with high genetic yield potentials.

This study was conducted on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) cultivars at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria. The objective was to evaluate the level of genetic divergence and heritability of eight characters in 2015 and 2016 dry seasons using irrigation. The results showed highly significant (p<0.01) differences in the ten okra cultivars for days to anthesis, plant height, fresh capsule length, fresh mass per capsule and fresh capsule diameter across the two years. A high genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability, and genetic advance were detected in all the characters except for days to anthesis and fresh capsule diameter. This implied that different genetic constitution and preponderance of additive effects governed these characters, thus presenting a significant opportunity for selection. The Mahanalobis D 2 analysis allotted the ten cultivars into four clusters. The highest was cluster I comprising four cultivars, followed by cluster II containing three cultivars, cluster III consisting two cultivars, and cluster IV with mono genotypic. The three most superior okra cultivars (Salkade, Y'ar gagure and Kwadag) for yield and related characters could be exploited directly or introgressed with other promising ones in future breeding programs. analiza je razdelila deset sort v štiri skupine (klastre). Največja skupina I je vsebovala 4 sorte, tej sledi skupina II s tremi sortami, nato skupina III z dvema sortama in mono-genotipska skupina IV. Tri najboljše sorte (Salkade, Y'ar gagure and Kwadag) glede na pridelek in z njim povezane lastnosti bi lahko bile uporabljene neposredno ali v križanjih z drugimi obetajočimi sortami v bodočih žlahtniteljskih programih.

Five International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) drought tolerant and open pollinated varieties (OPVs) (lines) and four local varieties with various level of susceptibility to drought (testers) were used.These maize varieties were crossed using a line x tester mating design during the 2007 cropping season to determine the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA); also the level of heterosis was investigated. Parental lines and hybrids were evaluated in Biu in 2008 and 2009 cropping seasons. Results from the analysis of variance and combining ability shows that there was high and significant level (P< 0.05) of genetic variability among the parental lines used and their hybrids in days to tasseling, days to silking, anthesis silking interval (ASI), plant height, ear height, weight of cobs, dehusked cobs and grain yield, thus suggesting the possibility for genetic improvement. The study established that, there were significant (P<0.05) differences of GCA effects of parents and that of SCA effects of hybrids. Estimates of GCA were consistently lower than SCA effects in almost all the traits evaluated. This suggests that high performing hybrids such as EVDT-99WSTRQPMC0 x EX-DAMBOA WHITE, EVDT-99WSTRC0 x EX-DAMBOA YELLOW andTZE-COMP 3 DTC 1 x EX-DAMBOA WHITE may be used to develop potential varieties. The parents: EVDT-99WSTRC0, EVDT-99WSTRQPMC0, TZE-COMP 3 DTC 1 and EX-BIU WHITE were identified as the best general combiners in terms of GCA for days to tasseling, days to silking, ASI, plant height, ear height, dehusked cobs and grain yield.