Sixteen early maturing genotypes of groundnut showed significant variation for all characters studied expect 100 kernal weight. Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) was higher than Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) for all the characters. High heritabilities (h 2 ) for days taken to flowering and maturity were found very high. At genotypic level all the traits under study except days taken to maturity exhibited significant positive association with pod yield while it showed significantly negative correlation. Sound Mature Kernal (SMK) %age by weight longwith shelling %age and No of pods per plant had fairly high h 2 , high Genetic Advance (G.A.), significantly positive genotypic correlation and positive direct effect on pod yield. Hence selection for these traits would be effective in improving pod yield and oil contents in early maturing genotypes.

Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI), Multan, Pakistan has evolved an upland cotton cultivar “Cyto-124” through introgression for Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCuV) resistance. It was developed through crossing [{2(G. hir. x G. ano.) X 3G. hir.} x {2(G. arbo. x G. ano.) x 2G. hir. It was tested for seed cotton yield in varietal trials, and zonal varietal trials at Govt. and farmer fields. Cyto-124 gave 37.1, 19.9 and 22.4% higher yield as compared to three standards MNH-786, CIM-554 and CRSM-38 respectively in varietal trials whileCyto-124 had seed cotton yield of 3075 kg ha-1 in-contrast to 2919 kg ha-1 of CIM-573 in zonal trials. Cyto-124 produced more seedcotton yield (SCY) than the standards for two consecutive years (2013 & 2014) in National Coordinated Varietal Trial (NCVT). In NCVT during 2013-14, this strain had a maximum yield of 2244 kg ha-1 compared with 1326 kg ha-1 of standard variety CIM-573 in Punjab. The virus data taken in NCVT indicated that minimum disease incidence (27.9%) was recorded in Cyto-124 making it the more tolerant strain against CLCuV. The approval of this CLCuV resistant cultivar will considerably contribute a lot in the revival of cotton.

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