A Study on Genetic Variability, Character Association and Path Co-Efficient Analysis on Morphological and Yield Attributing Characters of Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]

Abstract

The study investigated genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, heritability, genetic advance at 5% selection intensity and in percentage of population mean of nine characters (plant height, leaf number, length and width of leaf lamina, number and weight of cormels per plant, weight of corm per plant, dry matter percentage in the tubers and tuber yield per from 14 cultivars of taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott]). Results indicated highest genotypic coefficient of variation for dry matter percentage (47.91), which was 95.78% of the phenotypic coefficient of variation, whereas tuber yield per plant showed the widest range (819.37). Number of cormels per plant and dry matter percentage exhibited considerably higher heritability (84.90% and 91.70%, respectively) and genetic advance (81.19 and 79.00, respectively), indicating the potentiality of selection for improvement of such characters. These two characters were found to be positively correlated to tuber yield per plant. Path analysis revealed that weight of cormels per plant possessed the highest direct effect on tuber yield, indicating the importance of selection based on this character to increase tuber yield per plant.

Assessment of Character Association in Relation to Growth, Yield and Studies on Various Quality Parameters [Calcium Oxalate Crystals (Raphides), Shelf Life and Starch] in Different Colocasia (Colocasia esculenta L.) Genotypes

“…Similarly, petiole length, number of leaves per plant and leaf breadth conferred positive and significant correlation with leaf area at both the levels. These findings were consonance with Mohankumar et al, (1990), Thankamma et al, (1995 and Mukherjee et al, (2016). Highly significant positive correlation between herbage yield and number of leaves per plant might be assigned to more vegetative growth from the cormel of the colocasia genotypes.…”

Morphological Characterization of Some Upland Taro (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) Cultivars of North-East India

“…0.47 kg, 0.46 kg and 0.46 kg for 1 st year, 2 nd year and pooled data respectively (Table 5). It could be that increased leaf area, plant height and plant span observed in the best performing taro cultivars like Bor, Ahina and Makhuti intercepted more light leading to increased production of photosynthates effecting the food reserves in the corms and cormels and these corroborates findings of Pratiwi et al, (2014) and Mukherjee et al, (2016). The morphological characters like diameter and weight of corm and cormels also directly affected the yield, as cultivar Bor was recorded the highest corm and cormel diameter and weight.…”

Impact of Front Line Demonstrations on the Yield and Economics of Colocasia (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) in Kanker District of Chhattisgarh

“…Investigations have shown that colocasia contain digestible starch, protein of good quality, vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and high scores of proteins and essential amino acids. The crop is also very rich in dietary fibre, thus, it could be employed in the treatment of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cancer and gastrointestinal disorders (Mukherjee et al, 2016). Taro is cultivated in an area of around 1.30 m ha with an annual production of 9.98 mt and average yield of 7.68 t/ha (FAOSTAT, 2016) and the major colocasia growing states are Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Orissa, Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.…”