The present investigation on "Exploitation of hybrid vigour for fruit yield and its components in okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench]" was conducted at the Vegetable Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during summer 2018. The experimental material comprised of 16 parents (12 lines and 4 testers) to develop 48 hybrids using line x tester mating design. The final evaluation trial was conducted with 16 patents, their 48 F1 hybrids along with one commercial check (GJOH-4) in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. On considering the performance of hybrids in respect of fruit yield per plant, 4 and 3 hybrids exhibited significant and positive heterosis over better parent and standard check, respectively. Significant and positive estimates of heterobeltiosis and standard heterosis for fruit yield per plant were exhibited by the crosses IC-282248 x GAO-5 (33.77%, 24.67%), IC-282248 x Pusa Sawani (22.84%, 14.30%) and IC-31398 x GO-2 (17.30%, 13.14%), respectively and could be utilized for commercial exploitation of heterosis after large scale multilocation testing. The heterosis for fruit yield per plant was also associated with the heterosis expressed by its component characters.

A line x tester analysis using nine lines and five testers was carried out to study the combining ability and gene action in sesame for seed yield and its related 11 quantitative traits. The partitioning of variances due to the crosses showed that the mean squares due to lines were found significant for all the characters except for number of branches per plant and oil content, whereas mean squares due to testers and lines x testers were found significant for all the characters except for the plant height and number of branches per plant. General and specific combining ability variances showed the involvement of both type of gene actions in the inheritance of these characters. Among the parents, two lines viz., AT-472 and AT-483 and three testers viz., GT-2, GT-3 and GT-6 exhibited good general combining ability effect for seed yield per plant. The cross combination, AT-471 x GT-2 showed significant and positive sca effect for seed yield per plant and involved average x good combining parents. It was followed by AT-464 x GT-4 and AT-472 x GT-3 which involved either good x good or poor x poor combining parents. These crosses have been identified as best hybrids for improving seed yield per plant.