Variability Analysis for Yield and Yield Attributes of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under Sodic Soil Condition

The experimental materials comprised of 139 treatments (15 lines, 4 testers, 60 F1,s and 60 F2,s.) of wheat were grown at MES, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Narendra Nagar, Faizabad (U.P.) under sodic soil condition during Rabi 2012–13 to study the genetic variability of yield and its component traits. Analysis of variance due to treatments were highly significant for all the characters studied viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of effective tillers per plant, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, 1000-grain weight, grain yield per plant, biological yield per plant and harvest index indicating ample scope of selection. The high estimates (>20%) of PCV and GCV was recorded for grain yield per plant (36.68, 36.12) followed by biological yield per plant (35.89, 35.53) and number of effective tillers per plant (24.21, 22.56). The moderate estimates of PCV and GCV was recorded for number of grains per spike (15.35, 14.95). High heritability (>75%) coupled with high estimate of genetic advance in percent of mean (>20%) was observed for grain yield per plant, biological yield per plant, number of effective tillers per plant and number of grains per spike. Moderate estimate of genetic advance (>10 to <20%) was observed for biological yield per plant (16.46%) followed by number of grains per spike (12.86%). High heritability coupled with low genetic advance in per cent of mean was recorded for days to 50% flowering, days to maturity and harvest index. This study revealed that greater emphasis should be given to these characters for yield improvement.