Author : Khin Mu Aye

Summary : Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an essential oil crop widely cultivated in Asia and Africa. Knowledge of genetic diversity, correlation and path analysis is an important factor in planning a better selection strategy in any crop improvement program. In this study, field experiment was conducted with 54 sesame genotypes to analyze genetic variability, correlation and path analysis. The genotypes were cultivated in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Eleven characters of sesame were collected and analyzed. The analysis of variance indicated a significant variation among the genotypes for eleven characters. Days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, height of first capsule bearing node, number of primary branches per plant, capsule length, capsule width, number of seeds per capsule and 1000 seed weight revealed high heritability values. Additionally, moderate heritability values were observed by plant height, number of capsules per plant and seed yield per plant. Path coefficient analysis observed that number of primary branches per plant (0.493), number of capsules per plant (1.833) and number of seeds per capsule (0.448) were positively and directly contributed to seed yield. Moreover, these traits were strongly correlated with seed yield per plant. These traits may serve as selection criteria for increasing the yield of sesame.